*Demands for NOSDRA’s laboratory reports of remediated sites
Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — The Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP, has been charged to produce the DPR and NOSDRA’s certification of the solutions used by contractors for the ongoing clean-up in Ogoniland.
HYPREP, a body set up by the Federal Government, under the Ministry of Environment, to oversee the cleanup of oil polluted sites in Ogoniland, has also been tasked to produce NOSDRA’s laboratory reports of the six lots it has completed remediation.
The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, gave the charge recently, in reaction to claims by HYPREP that it has finished remediating six polluted lots, out of the 21 lots earlier awarded in 2019 to contractors for remediation.
Executive Director, CISLAC, Auwal Ibrahim Musa, expressed concern over he called “the politicking that has enveloped the entire cleanup process, which was conceived to restore, remediate and rehabilitate the people of Ogoni and the Niger Delta region.”
Musa said it was distracting for HYPREP to announced that it has completed 70percent of the first phase of the Ogoni cleanup, and wondered if there has been an independent monitoring of the clean-up process, by any organization.
He said HYPREP was not lacking funds, and wondered why the project was suffering delays and bottlenecks, adding that the public should be able to access a workplan for the remediation project, if HYPREP has one.
According to him, “Are there plans for the acclaimed completed sites? Could HYPREP publish such plans for the acclaimed completed sites?
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“UNEP has provided some capacity building for the project for the last one year. Can HYPREP publish UNEP’s perception of their success?
“Does HYPREP have a blueprint for addressing re-pollution from un-serviced assets and artisanal refining activities? Are there any parallel reports to HYPREP’s record of the contractors’ operations or the clean-up activities?
“The key performance indicators is an indispensable tool in the monitoring of remediation projects. Does HYPREP has one? If yes, could it be accessed in the public domain to enable independent probing of contractors?
“HYPREP contracted 21 lots, and six of these are said to be completed. Does it mean that those six lots constitute 70% of the phase 1 lots?
“Could HYPREP produce the laboratory results of the six lots it claimed to have completed remediation works?
“Could the National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) produce monitoring records of the acclaimed completed lots?
“Could HYPREP produce the DPR and NOSDRA certification of the solutions used by contractors for clean-up in Ogoniland?
“Are there conflict of interest arising from allotment of sites to laboratory analysis of samples? And if yes, what is being done to address such conflicts and its impacts on the credibility of the project?” CISLAC queried.