By: Felix Ikpotor
President of Ogoni Youth Federation,OYF, Mr Legborsi Yamaabana has called for the establishment of the Ogoni Environmental Restoration Authority as recommended by the United Nations.
He said establishment of the authority will speed up the clean-up of oil impacted sites in Ogoni land.
The Ogoni youth leader stated this while reacting to a Federal High Court judgment which struck out a Freedom of Information,FOI, suit OYF filed against the Hydrocarbon Pollution and Remediation Project, HYPREP.
He said, “today we are happy that the judgment has been delivered, however, we are not comfortable with the outcome of the judgment. But one thing that struck our minds is that the court has said today that HYPREP is merely an agency created by a notice of the Federal Ministry of Environment and that HYPREP cannot sue or be sued which means that the agency has no teeth to bite.
“Ogoni youths hereby called for the immediate establishment of the Ogoni Environmental Restoration Authority as recommended by the United Nations. Until this has been done, Ogoni people will continue to suffer issues of accountability and transparency on the Ogoni cleanup project which will ultimately affect the clean-up exercise”.
Earlier, A Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt had struck out a Freedom of Information bill suit filed by OYF against HYPREP, on technical ground.
Ogoni Youth Federation had gone to court to seek judicial redress over the inability of HYPREP to provide them with information over the disbursement of the initial ten million dollars mapped out by the Federal Government as take-off grants for the project and the beneficiaries of some of its programmes.
Justice.E. Obile while delivering judgment on the suit ruled that HYPREP cannot be sued because it was not established by an act of the National Assembly.
The Court said that Ogoni Youth Federation did not follow the right judicial process in filing the suit and declared that the Federal Government is the proper party to the suit and not HYPREP.
Lawyer to OYF, Epsibari Pygbara while reacting to the verdict said he will meet his client to review the case.
He said striking out the suit will be a set back to the clean-up of oil impacted sites in Ogoniland.
He noted that Ogoni Youth Federation would re-filed the case after careful review of the matter.
However, lawyer to HYPREP, Adaeze Amaefule, refused to comment on the judgment.
