The House of Representatives Committee on Environment and Habitat has insisted that minister of Environment, Amina Muhammed, must appear before it to explain the ministry’s comprehensive plan for implementation of the $1 billion 2011 UNEP report on Ogoni Land clean-up.
This is just as the committee observed that there was inadequate engagement between the ministry and International Oil Companies, asking the minister to drive an effective process of implementation.
Chairman of the committee, Hon Obinna Chidoka, during an investigative hearing on the slow take-off of the project, questioned the capacity of the ministry to drive the process.
“We are worried that the implementation of this report is yet to take off and the Ogoni people and, indeed, the entire Niger Delta have continued to drink contaminated water, eat sea food scrounged from the polluted water and the community people still process their foods in crude coated creeks,” he said.
Chidoka, who frowned at the NNPC’s absence at the investigative meeting, noted that the management of NNPC must appear before the committee to provide a detailed plan of how the agency intends to contribute the $550 million being 55 per cent required commitment to the project.
“I wonder how they will even attend the meeting of the governing council, if they will not turn-up for a meeting like this, this is to re-invite the NNPC to appear before this committee, it is a must as they must explain to us how they intend to play their own part in the process,” he said.
The committee, however, resolved to visit the polluted communities in the Niger-Delta region, so as to have a firsthand knowledge of the environmental damage.
Minister of State, Environment, Jibril Ibrahim, who represented the minister at the meeting explained that the minister would religiously follow the provisions of the UNEP report in the implementation process, adding that the ministry had done all the necessary engagements with stakeholders.
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