FEDERAL MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT
HYDROCARBON POLLUTION REMEDIATION PROJECT (HYPREP)
ON THE PLANNED PROTEST BY COMRADE LEGBORSI YAMAABANA AT HYPREP PCO AND ITS PROJECT SITES IN OGONILAND
The Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) has drawn attention to plans by some youths led by Legborsi Yamaabana to protest at the Project Coordination Office and its project sites in Ogoniland today.
We wish to state that there is nothing to warrant such a protest if it is not intended to cause a breach of peace and disrupt the activities of the Project.
Rather than resort to cheap blackmail and propaganda, we implore aggrieved persons to instead explore the various means of mediation, including reaching the Central Representative Committee (CRAC) and Zonal Representative Committee (ZRC) of HYPREP that interface between communities and the Project to resolve issues.
Moreover, we wonder what should warrant a protest against HYPREP, especially when it is carrying out several projects that have a direct positive impact on the people of Ogoniland. Prominent among these projects are the construction of 14 Water schemes that will reticulate 52 Ogoni communities, the construction of the Ogoni Power Project, Centre of Excellence for Environmental Restoration (CEER), 100-bed Ogoni Specialist Hospital, a cottage hospital, and robust the sustainable livelihood programmes; the ongoing training of 5000 women and youths in 20 skill areas, etc, and the shoreline remediation and mangrove restoration, all of which are massively addressing unemployment and improving the Human Development Index (HDI) of the Ogoni people.
Again, it is worrisome that despite these enormous benefits to the Ogoni people, Legborsi Yamaabana would instead pursue primordial, self-serving, and ignoble ventures aimed at derailing the project.
HYPREP continues to operate a transparent and accountable clean-up project and is disposed to providing relevant information to the public on its operation.
We hereby call on the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, to hold Legborsi Yamaabana and his cohorts responsible should there be any breach of peace and security at the PCO and across HYPREP’s project sites.
Enuolare Mba-Nwigoh
Head, Communications
21/11/2023