Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — The Minister of Environment, Balarabe Abbas Lawal, has urged contractors handling various projects in Ogoniland to accelerate the tempo, in order to deliver the projects within targeted timeframe, without contradicting the engineering designs and specifications.
Lawal also reiterated the Federal Government’s commitment to ensuring the speedy completion of all ongoing projects in Ogoniland, particularly the remediation of crude oil polluted sites in Ogoni.
The Minister disclosed this to journalists at the end of a two-day working visit to various project sites in Ogoniland, undertaken by the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP, and expressed satisfaction with the projects on the ground.
Lawal accompanied by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Abubakar Momoh, visited various HYPREP project sites including the Centre of Excellence for Environmental Remediation, water facilities, and also planted mangroves.
He noted that the projects when completed will attract huge development in the area.
“I want to appeal that all those involved in this (CEER) project and other projects in Ogoniland should fast-track the projects, because this project has a lifespan and that lifespan is approaching very fast, so whatever we are doing we need to do it very fast.
“Initially the project was meant to be seven years, but this is our seventh year and we are not where we should be. So we need to push the project forward as much as we can.
“This is the Centre of Excellence for Environmental Remediation where people from all over the world will come for environmental research and I am very much impressed with what I have seen so far. The last time I came here in December 2023, most of the buildings were not yet erected but today about seven months later, I can see so many structures in place. I am very much impressed and satisfied with what I have seen.”
Some members of Kpoghor community in Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State, who spoke on the newly commissioned potable water in the community expressed joy over the project.
“Before now, we have been suffering from water. We have been fetching water with oil from the stream. I am very happy for the water provided by the federal government through HYPREP, may God bless them.”
