The Minister of Enviroment, Dr Mohammad Abubakar, has blamed vandalism of pipelines by the communities and other issues of insecurity as the reasons for the delay in cleaning up Ogoniland.
Abubakar said this while briefing newsmen on important recent developments in the environment sector on Wednesday, in Abuja.
Abubakar said following the constant pipeline vandalism, the government decided to engage the youths with jobs, so that they might not have the time to break the pipelines.
“The government also decided to provide water to the communities, being one of the needs of the people.
“Before the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, the cleanup committee was domiciled in the Ministry of Petroleum, which was a misplacement.
“So, on assumption of office, the administration returned it to the Ministry of Environment.
“On Aug. 4, 2011, exactly 10 years today, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) submitted their report of Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland to the Federal Government, which they were commissioned to undertake.
“In July 2012, as a follow-up action, the Federal Government established the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP), under the Ministry of Petroleum, to implement the UNEP Report, the project could not take off properly.
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“In June 2016, Buhari, represented by Vice President, Prof. Osibanjo, inaugurated the Ogoniland cleanup at Bodo Waterside, in fulfillment of his election campaign promise in 2015.
“After about two years of careful logistic arrangements, community contacts and technical preparations, the first phase of 21 clean-up and remediation contracts were rolled out.
“Then followed by another set of 29 remediation and 7 tier-2 assessment contracts in 2020.
“The cleanup had trained the youths for sustainable alternative livelihood and provided a Public Health Inventory, Environmental Surveillance and construction of Centre of Excellence for Environmental Studies/Remediation.
“In addition, we are also constructing HYPREP area offices in each of four Local Government Area Councils in Ogoniland. This will bring the project closer to the benefitting communities.
“We are in the process of engaging about 500 Ogoni youths across the four LGAs, as special community security agents for the project” he said.