The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has restated the resolve of civil society groups advancing the full implementation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Assessment Report on Ogoniland to work with the new leadership of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) to achieve the objective.
A statement on Monday by ERA/FoEN Communication Officer, Elvira Jordan, said ERA/FoEN Executive Director, Chima Williams during a one-day National Roundtable on the HYPREP, organised by the Peoples Advancement Centre (PAC) on Monday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State gave the assurance.
Williams, according to the release, said it was good news that the recently appointed Project Coordinator of HYPREP, Professor Nenibari Zabbey is an activist who had campaign for the restoration of the Ogoni environment as recommended by the UNEP and had equally published papers on how the cleanup exercise will succeed.
The ERA/FoEN boss noted however that even with Professor Zabbey on the saddle, civil society will not let up on their watchdog role, to make the new helmsman succeed and the goals of the UNEP Assessment achieved.
HYPREP Project Coordinator, Professor Nenibari Zabbey in his intervention, pledged to work constructively with civil society groups, to address the gaps in the operations of the agency. He announced that the gender disparity in the agency as reflected in only 5 per cent women in the agency will be addressed to ensure parity with the men folk.
Zabbey also announced that over 500 youths have been recruited and deployed as civil security, supporting clean-up sites and facilities even as he added that mangrove restoration will be a priority of his administration, to pave the way for the livelihood challenges of the locals to be adequately addressed.
He explained that he is set to put in place a framework for inclusion, community engagement and standard operating procedures within the shortest possible time to ensure that the gaps observed by Ogoni people and civil society are addressed headlong.
Earlier in his welcome remarks, PAC Convener, Celestine Akpobari explained that HYPREP as an agency of government was not set up for the love of the impacted people of Ogoni land, but because of civil society pressure exposing the decade’s long injustices meted on the Ogoni people.
Akpobari said the convening is targeted at getting the new leadership of HYPREP to stay on course in implementing the UNEP assessment, even as he noted that HYPREP had deviated from its original mandate in some cases.
