Two years after the flag-off of the Ogoni Cleanup remediation exercise, some Ogoni opinion Leaders have described the exercise as a sham.
The President of the Ogoni Liberation Initiative, Dr Douglas Fabeke, who expressed regret during an Economic and Empowerment Summit in Port Harcourt, said the people of Ogoni are yet to feel the impact of the remediation or improvement in their land.
According to Fabeke, the people are still drinking polluted water, noting that if the project was on course, good drinking water would have been provided as recommended in the United Nations Environmental Programme report, UNEP, on Ogoniland.
“We the people of Ogoni after the flag-off of the remediation process had expected changes in our environment, but we regret that there has not been any form of improvement in the area. Our aim as Ogoni Liberation Initiative is to improve economic activities in Ogoni land by bringing in companies who are into innovation, those who are ready to help Ogoni youths, to curb insecurity in the area in a way to address all grievances of the youths.
“I brought in expert here today to build remediation laboratory which is supposed to be before any remediation exercise begins.
“Right now, we are on the process to meet all our youths, we know the cause of insecurity in the area and it has faces. It is some people that constitute insecurity and we are on the journey of addressing all the issues that make youths take up arms.
“The Ogoni cleanup exercise is a sham because people are still suffering from the pollution from Oil exploration in the area. We are yet to see any Company commence cleanup exercise in Ogoni.
“So, the question is; where is the cleanup going on? Is it to dig up a hole somewhere put sand inside and say you are doing cleanup? Ogoni people are not feeling the impact of the cleanup.
“You cannot have a cleanup and you do not know the office of the people who are doing the cleanup. A woman’s house is right in the pit where the said remediation exercise is taking place and yet there was no portable water provided for her to drink.
“We do not know what is going on in Ogoniland. Some government regulatory bodies have been to Ogoni and seen for themselves the height of pollutions over all the communities, we have equally carried out research just to discover that these people in those communities are still suffering under decade of pollution.”
On his part, A Remediation Expert and Managing Director Amonia Oil exploration and production, Dr. Peter Udofe, disclosed plans to set up a bio-remediation system for the cleanup exercise.
“We are coming up with a bioremediation system to do the cleanup by setting up a laboratory which will produce enzymes and the enzymes would be used to clean Ogoni.
“We are working with the Ogoni Liberation Initiative to ensure that when the cleanup is done, the Ogonis can resume their aquaculture, agriculture, and those displaced because of the pollution return back to their places. We would equally train the Ogoni Youths ”
Recall on Thursday, the United Nation Environmental Programme marked 1000 days of the commencement of the cleanup process in Ogoni.
Our correspondent reports that Ogoni Liberation Initiative also flagged off Ogoni face of peace and development pageant.
