Ogoni Clean-Up: We’re Shocked HYPREP Is Unknown To Law, Ogoni Youths Lament

Some youths in crude oil devastated Ogoniland, Rivers State, have expressed shock and apprehension over the recent judgement of a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt which declared the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), in charge of the Ogoni clean-up, as “unknown to law” and “can’t sue or be sued”.
The plaintiff in the case, Ogoni Youth Federation (OYF), in a joint statement by the National Youth Council of Ogoni People (NYCOP) in Port Harcourt, yesterday, said the judgement portends danger for the Ogoni people, if a body entrusted with millions of dollars to clean-up Ogoniland cannot be questioned while also harping on the imperative to back HYPREP by law.
It would be recalled that the Ogoni Youth Federation (OYF), relying on the Freedom of Information Act, in the suit against HYPREP, had approached the court to compel HYPREP to be accountable on how initial $10million Federal Government take-off grants for the Ogoni clean-up was being disbursed.
But the Presiding Justice Emmanuel Obile, who struck out the case on technical grounds in the July 17 ruling, had declared that HYPREP could not be sued because it was not established by an Act of the National Assembly, asserting that the plaintiffs filed the suit wrongly as they did not follow the right judicial process.