By: Felix Ikpotor
The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, has condemned calls by a faction of the National Youth Council of Ogoni People , NYCOP, for the replacement of Prof. Neenibarini Zabbey as the Project Coordinator of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP.
Factional President of NYCOP, Raymond Nwibani had during a recent protest at the Federal Ministry of Environment in Abuja called for the sacking of Zabbey.
MOSOP, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Comrade Imeabe Saviour Oscar on Friday, disowned the demand by the youths, describing it as unpatriotic and self-serving.
MOSOP insisted that HYPREP’s Projects remains beneficial for all and deserves the support of all true sons and daughters of Ogoni, home and abroad.
The body urged Ogoni youths to continue to give their maximum support to the clean-up exercise and resist attempts to be used by detractors as ready tools to truncate the successes the project have achieved.
The statement reads in parts: “The attention of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, has been drawn to a call by the National Youth Council of Ogoni People, NYCOP, the youth wing of this organization, for the removal of the Project Coordinator of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project , HYPREP,.
“While we disown and condemn such an unpatriotic and self-serving gesture in the strongest terms, we insist that the HYPREP Project is a work in progress and deserves the support of all true sons and daughters of Ogoni, both here and in the diaspora, to succeed.
“The Project holds enormous benefits for the aggregate mass of Ogoni women, youths, children, and the environment, and we should be constructively engaged to implement the project effectively. We are all beneficiaries of the Project, whether directly or indirectly, and should not be quick to throw away the baby with the bath water when it appears things do not align with our personal interests.
“MOSOP frowns at perceived pecuniary and self-serving moves that can derail the course of the clean-up programme, especially the call for the change of the Project Coordinator Professor Neenibarini Zabbey as the third substantive Project Coordinator of HYPREP.
“So far, he is making good progress in implementing the thematic areas of the Ogoni Clean-up Programme and should be encouraged to stay focused on this mandate. It is a fundamental concern that the constant change of the Project Coordinator is at the base of the slack in the project pace, and we would not be a party to reinforcing this anomaly.
“More so, MOSOP is particularly bugged that its youth wing has embarked on this vain mission and views it as arbitrary and a violation of the protocol of engagement in view of the subject matter. In any case, we have it on good account that the Ogoni youths are the most beneficiaries of the HYPREP Project, evidenced by the number of jobs created, capacity development, and other benefits.
“We therefore, urge our youths to continue to give their maximum support to the clean-up programme and resist attempts to be used by detractors and naysayers as ready tools to truncate the project.
“To this end, MOSOP wishes to commend the Federal Government for its commitment to the clean-up of Ogoniland and urges HYPREP to be mindful of the enormous responsibility with which it is saddled, which is to remediate hydrocarbon-impacted communities and restore the people’s livelihoods.
“Premium, therefore, must be placed in the speedy and timely completion of these key mandates, especially in the provision of potable water to more communities, access to quality health care, and livelihood programmes in Ogoniland.”
