The Federal Government has revealed plans to initiate an audit on the Ogoni people in Rivers State to determine the effects of prolonged hydrocarbon exposure on them.
It made this disclosure through the Minister of State for Environment, Sharon Ikeazor, during a one-day stakeholder engagement programme on the clean-up of Ogoni land held in Bori, Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The minister, in her speech, noted that the planned health audit was essential to determine the interventions needed.
“We will carry out a health audit of Ogoni people to ascertain the effect of prolonged exposure to hydrocarbon on the people, in order to determine the kind of interventions that need to be done.”
The minister revealed that Ogoni youths would be engaged to provide security to the oil impacted sites in the area undergoing clean-up by the Hydro-carbon Pollution Remediation Project.
Ikeazor further appealed to all stakeholders for collaboration in ensuring the clean-up project was a success, as she maintained that the Ministry would continue to engage the Ogoniland.
“You call it security, but I call it environmental surveillance. So we are going to engage Ogoni youths in environmental surveillance, to protect all the sites we’re cleaning.
“No one can protect the sites more than the people. The more we have our young people securing these sites, the better for us.
“For advertisements of contracts, I have made sure that due process will be followed. The bids will be open to all qualified Nigerians.
“We might have to look at other sites that are contaminated so that once we finished the clean-up, we know that we have finished everything, not just cleaning the polluted sites that are under our scope, while there are still other areas that are contaminated.
“My goal is to ensure that the clean-up project is owned by the Ogoni people and that more indigenous people acquire the required skills and ability to participate in this clean-up,” she added.
She also noted that she had approved the Project Coordinator, Prof. Philip Shekwolo, to go ahead with the advertisement for setting up the integrated soil contamination centre and the centre of excellence.
Former President, Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Ledum Mitee, requested that youths be employed in the project and be provided with training on skill acquisition.
