19 August, 2011, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. Austen Oniwon,
has pledged to work with Nigeria’s Joint Venture oil partners to recover Ogoni land and give life back to the community.
According to a statement issued NNPC spokesman Levi Ajuonuma, Oniwon made the pledge when he met with representatives of Shell, Total, Agip and Chevron in response to the UN report.
“We must come together to fashion out a common and unified approach to address the key recommendations contained in the UN report on Ogoni land,” it quoted Oniwon as saying.
Oniwon gave assurance that a committee would be set up to study and evaluate the report with a view to bringing back the glory of Ogoni land.
It said that a stakeholders’ meeting on the report was a testimony of the importa nce attached to it, and that oil companies were not out to damage the environment in which they operated.
The statement, however, warned oil companies operating in Ogoni land and other parts of the country to ensure the protection of the environment in which they operated.
The UN report published criticized Shell and the Nigerian government for contributing to 50 years of pollution in Ogoniland, a region of the Niger Delta which it says needs the world’s largest ever oil cleanup, costing an initial $1 billion and taking up to 30 years.
It also detailed the outcome of a 14-month assessment of contaminated land, water sediment, vegetation, air quality, public health, industry practices and institutional issues in Ogoni land as a result of the activities of oil companies.
