The federal government yesterday announced the formation of a Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project, with a pledge to fully implement the United Nations Environment Programme Assessment Report on Ogoniland.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, said the setting up of HYPREP by President Goodluck Jonathan “is in keeping with the federal government’s determination to protect the environmental rights of the people.”
She said that HYPREP would assume the responsibility of implementing recommendations in the UNEP report, which was commissioned in 2011, “as well as investigate, evaluate and establish other hydrocarbon impacted sites and make appropriate recommendations.”
HYPRP, according to Diezani, will be supervised by the Minister of Environment, Mrs. Hadiza Ibrahim Mailafa.
