Indigenes of Ogoni on Tuesday demanded a $100bn restoration fund for the Niger Delta to, among other issues, address the clean-up and compensation of citizens in the region.
The demand was made in Abuja in commemoration of the third year of the release of the United Nations Environmental Programme assessment report on Ogoniland.
The Ogoni indigenes also threatened not to re-elect President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 general elections if he continues to feign ignorance on the demands of the report as touching people from the region.
The Executive Director, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, Dr. Godwin Uyi, alongside several representatives from the region, stated that Shell Petroleum Development Company and the Federal Government had failed to implement the recommendations of the UNEP report three years after it was released.
Uyi said, “Shell would not obey the laws of Nigeria and would not accede to the implementation of the report recommendations.
“We reiterate our demands, among others, that the Ogonis in collaboration with other Niger Delta communities and civil society approach the United Nations to appoint a Niger Delta Reconciliation and Restoration Commission with autonomy and authority to do so.
“We are not only demanding $1bn for the Ogoni environment restoration but the sum of $100bn restoration fund for the Niger Delta to address clean-up, restoration and compensation.”
Uyi said since the UNEP report, Shell had disputed some of the findings in it without providing any scientific basis for its claims.
He said the oil major had blamed the Federal Government for not putting in place requisite framework to make the company to commit funds in remediation.
He said, “It is vexing that the accused, which is the Nigerian government, is maintaining sealed lips, and like Shell, not making any commitment. In the face of such provocation and impunity, the Nigerian government is unable to bring Shell to order.
“The lack of meaningful action gives the impression that Shell is able to get away with the environmental and human rights abuses in the Niger Delta.”
The National President, Host Communities Network of Nigeria, a body that interfaces between oil producing regions and oil firms, Prince Babs-Preye Pawuru, stated that residents in the Niger Delta region would not vote for Jonathan if he fails to implement the recommendations of the UNEP report.
He said, “It is sad that we have a President from the Niger Delta who understands what people in this region are suffering and has refused to act decisively by implementing the UNEP report.
“I will like to let him know that people in the region are watching him and if nothing serious is done as to implementing the recommendations of this report and meeting our demands, he should forget our votes come 2015.”
Meanwhile, Shell, in a statement singed by its Media Relations Manager, Precious Okolobo, said the majority of UNEP’s recommendations required multi-stakeholder efforts coordinated by the Federal Government.
It said neither SPDC nor any other stakeholder was in a position to implement the entirety of UNEP’s recommendations unilaterally.
“SPDC has an activity programme in place, focused on delivering improvements in the environmental and community health situation on the ground. We continue to work with the government, communities and a number of constructive NGOs and civil society groups in the Niger Delta to accelerate progress,” it said.
Source: The Punch
