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Ogoni Clean-up: $360M received for exercise, board chairman confirms

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Ogoni Clean-up: $360M received for exercise, board chairman confirms

The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ogoni Clean-Up project, Mr. Olawale Edun, on Tuesday told the Senate that $360 million has so far been received for the exercise.

Mr Edun further told the Senate that $43 million out of the $360m has been released to the Hydrocarbon Pollution Environment Project, the agency set up to supervise the cleanup.

The Project Coordinator, Dr. Marvin Dekil, 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.

The Committee directed the Ministry of the Environment supervising the project to fashion out new strategies that would move the project forward.

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.

The 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.

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