The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has challenged the federal government to respond to the allegations by the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) that it was frustrating the release of funds for the implementation of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) assessment on Ogoni land.
In a release issued by the head of media, Philip Jakpor, in Lagos, the said the allegation came as a rude shock to it and that the Ogoni people demands an response from the government.
The Ogoni Restoration Project Manager for SPDC, Augustine Igbuku, had said before the House of Representatives Committee on Environment that Shell was willing to contribute to the $1 billion Ogoni Restoration Fund but was being frustrated by the lack of government structure and a legal framework for the Hydrocarbon Restoration Project (HYPREP), the ad hoc intervention agency set up by the government.
The Shell official was also said to have identified lack of work plan by the ministry of petroleum resources for the proposed clean up and the utilisation of the funds as part of the delay.
Reacting to this, executive director, Godwin UyiOjo, ERA/FoEN, said the group found the government’s laid-back attitude to the remediation exercise very saddening.
He said this was so because while Shell tries to absolve itself from the current impasse it actually benefits from the Nigerian government inaction while the Ogoni environment and people suffer.
“We strongly believe this is complicity. Is it not an irony that while the rest of the world clamours for global binding mechanisms to hold transnational like Shell accountable for environmental atrocities, the Nigerian government is demonstrating its unwillingness to compel the same company to act in this frustration game being played out?
“This kind of foot-dragging and somersaults on an issue that bothers on the lives and livelihoods of the people of Ogoni is so worrisome,” he said. He said the group laments the assertion and the level of complicity of the government.
“While the blame game continues, it is environment and the Ogonis that suffer from this neglect. Like we had mentioned during the recent visit of the Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Mrs.LiliannePloumen, during her visit to Port Harcourt on 16th June, 2014 we want Shell’s home government to compel the company and the Nigerian government to come up with feasible and realisable plan of action on the clean-up.
“ERA/FoEN position clearly stated during Ploumen’s visit is that the communities are willing to engage positively with the polluter and the Nigerian government but they remain shut out in this game of rigmarole on the clean-up and remediation exercise proposed by UNEP which is expected to take 30 years to complete.”
also reiterated the group’s demands that government, should as a matter of urgent national importance, set up the Ogoni land Environmental Restoration Authority (OERA) to oversee the implementation of the recommendations of the UNEP assessment.
It also wants government to establish the Centre of Excellence for Environmental Restoration in Ogoni land (CEERO) to promote learning in other areas impacted by oil contamination in the Niger Delta and elsewhere in the world to run training courses in environmental monitoring.
Other demands of the group includes government should review all the National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) enabling laws to make it the sole agency for handling all oil spill-related issues management including taking steps to ensure that oil spills does not occur, and when it does, proper remediation and environmental recovery is carried out and impacted communities and individuals adequately compensated .
