The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has lamented that the Ogoni cleanup contract has been corrupted as political patronage for politicians to enrich themselves at the detriment of the poor-impacted victims of the oil and gas pollution.
The ERA/FoEN also noted that the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) has become a rubber stamp in the hand of the politicians to scuttle the cleanup of Ogoniland and thus neglecting its core mandate.
Executive Director of ERA, Dr. Godwin Ojo, said the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari in the past four years scored near zero for its poor environmental protection record, stressing that there is lack of acceptable key performance indicators for the cleanup.
Ojo, who stated this in Port Harcourt yesterday during an environmental parliament to mark the World Environment Day, however, urged the Federal Government to demonstrate seriousness on environmental protection by establishing a cleanup and remediation fund of $100 billion for the cleanup of the entire Niger Delta to restore the environment and sustain rural livelihoods.