…$43m released to HYPREP
By: Felix Ikpotor
The Board of Trustees of the Ogoni Clean Up Project , has so far received the sum of $360 million from multinational companies for the exercise.
Chairman of the board, Mr Olawale Edun stated this on Tuesday while appearing before the Senate committee on environment.
Edum further disclosed that $43 million out of the $360m has been released to the Hydrocarbon Pollution Environment Project,HYPREP, the agency responsible for supervision of the clean up .
The Project Coordinator, Dr. Marvin Dekil who was part of the delegation, confirmed receipt of the $43 million.
Dekil however said that money was not the challenge hindering the progress of the work but technical factors and a “sluggish procurement process”
The $360 million was raised from contributions from multinational oil companies in the last two years towards the $1 billion the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) report said was required to clean up Ogoniland.
The contribution is however short of $40million the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Ogoniland BOT are meant to collect from local operators and refineries.
Chairman of the Senate committee on Environment, Mr lke Ekweremadu said he was disappointed that no site out of the 65 contaminated sites marked for clean up and remediation has been certified “clean” two years after the fund was released.
The Committee directed the Ministry of the Environment supervising the project to fashion out new strategies that would move the project forward.
On his part, Minister of the Environment, Mohammed Abubarkar, pleaded for more time to work out new strategies on how to move the Ogoniland Clean Up project forward.
