From Tony John, Port Harcourt
The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has frowned at the conversion of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) to political patronage by the Federal Government.
MOSOP made the allegation as one of the issues contained in a communiqué released by its apex decision-making organ, the Central Committee (also known as Steering Committee), signed by the President, Prince Birra, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, yesterday. The pan-Ogoni group described the action as fraudulent and detrimental to the clean-up of oil polluted Ogoni environment.
It commended concerned Ogoni organisations and other interested parties for the peaceful and non-violent approaches adopted in articulating their grievances, as well as pursuing resolution of the complaints against obvious upsetting failings of HYPREP.
Birra stated: “The Steering Committee condemned in strong terms seeming conversion of the agency to a mere patronage dispensing board, where politicians, high profile government functionaries, national parliamentarians and their cronies as well as HYPREP officials, their relatives and friends are fraudulently serviced to the detriment of the clean-up project.” The meeting, however, counselled the organisations and leaders to work as a team in the efforts at repositioning HYPREP to the path of sanity, efficiency and progress for the common good of all stakeholders. It warned the advocates to beware of divisive infiltrators pretending as messiahs, but sponsoring saboteurs to break and destroy the good conscience campaign.
The assembly advised the management of HYPREP to listen to these voices of reason and open its doors to thorough and helpful dialogue. It also urged the controlling leadership of the agency including the supervising Federal Ministry of Environment, to resist temptations or lures against democratizing the execution and management of the clean-up project to assure and effect inclusivity, transparency and accountability as essential pillars of confidence building and trust.