Buhari speaks on Ogoni clean-up delay

 

Barely 18 months after the clean up programme of the Ogoniland was flagged up, President Muhammadu Buhari, has given an insight into why the project is yet to kick off.

The project, which was launched in June, 2016, in Rivers state, has attracted a lots of criticisms with the Governor, Nyesom Wike, accusing the federal government of nonchalant towards the environmental issue affecting the Rivers people.

Wike, who addressed members of the Senate Committee on Environment, who were in the state recently, alleged that Ogoni clean up programme remains a political project aimed at attaining political mileage.

Also, some groups from the South South region alleged that the Federal Government was only paying a lip service to the cleanup project in the region, claiming that the devastation of Ogoniland has impoverished the people by destroying their farmlands and fishing waters.

But the President has disclosed that his government was working very hard on the project, saying that the results of the eight companies which conducted the mock clean up on the project recently were being studied.

Buhari also disclosed that despite the fact that the project will be funded by the international oil companies, he had also made provision for the costs of oversight and governance in the 2018 to allow for its smooth take off.

The president made this declaration recently while presenting a N8.612 trillion 2018 budget proposal before the joint session of the National Assembly.
He said: “We are working hard on the Ogoni Clean-up Project. During the year, we engaged eight international and local companies proposing different technologies for the mandate.

“To enable us select the best and most suitable technology for the remediation work, we asked each company to conduct Demonstration Clean-up Exercises in the four local government areas of Ogoni Land.

“Demonstrations were recently concluded and the results are being studied by the Governing Council of the Ogoni Clean-up Project”.

 

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