Former Senator that represented the Rivers South-East Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Magnus Abe, has said the Ogoni Clean-up in Rivers State has been a major disappointment to affected communities because no key expectations have been met.
Abe, while speaking during a media chat, said the claims that the $1billion fund available for the Ogoni clean-up may have been filtered away, may not be the case, however, it would be a shame that the objectives of the cleaning up the area are not achieved after such money was released.
He said: “The exercise was not going in the right direction. The project so far has been a major disappointment to Ogoni people. None of the very high expectations had been met. I understand the resources are still there. Some of the stories that the resources are being squandered and filtered away may not be the case.
“It will be a shame if, at the end of this whole $1 billion, the place is still being exactly the way it was before the Ogoni clean-up.”
Recall that National Assembly Joint Panel on host communities had last week, summoned the Minister of Environment, Mohammed Abdullahi, and the Management of Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project over failure to clean up Ogoni land despite payment of $1 billion for the project.
Amidst the absence of the minister and officials of the Ministry of Environment, who refused to show up at the panel, the Chairman of the National Assembly Joint Panel, Degi Eremienyo, said he was grossly disappointed at the development.
He maintained that those absent had a lot to hide about the clean-up and were concealing information, as the ministry had been invited three times to brief the National Assembly members but the officials and the minister had refused to show up.
The Ogoni clean-up, in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme, was flagged off in June 2016 by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
