The Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP, has pledged to honour the memories of the Ogoni 13 who died in the course of the struggle for the emancipation of the Ogoni people by making judicious use of funds meant for the cleanup of the environment.
The agency said any attempt to squander the funds released to it for the cleanup of Ogoni land would amount to abusing the memories of the Ogoni martyrs.
The newly-appointed Project Coordinator of HYPREP, Dr. Ferdinand Giadom, stated this at his maiden press conference in Port Harcourt.
Giadom who is the second substantive project coordinator of the interventionist agency said the 13 martyrs would be the first consideration in all decisions that HYPREP would take in order to honour their memories and give their families a sense of belonging.
He said, “For the families of Ogoni 13 and people that actually laid down their lives so that we could live today, we say that these projects will not leave you behind.
“You will be part of everything that we are doing because we know that you laid down the choicest blood that can be found in any part of Africa.
“We will at all times respect their memories. In fact and indeed, that should be the first consideration in all decisions that we are going to take. We will not abuse their memory by doing what is not right.
“We will not abuse their memories by squandering these funds. We will not abuse their memories by not being interested and committed to this process.
“When we are demanding for things, let us always remember that people died for us to live. The only way we can honour their memory is to make sure this project succeeds.
“Not only succeeding for today, but succeeding for future generations; not only for them, but the many people who died for this course.”
He also promised that the his administration would put in place economic programmes to improve agriculture in Ogoni communities.
“We are going to provide enabling that people will practice agriculture where they can earn a decent living, we are going to greatly improve agricultural productivity of Ogoni.
“Beyond that we intend to provide processing facilities that will turn this products into finished goods,” he said.
