1000 days after the flag off of the cleanup of Ogoni environment, the Ogoni Liberation Initiative, OLI, has stated that the people of Ogoni are yet to feel impact of the remediation of their land. The President and Chief Executive Officer of OLI, Dr. Douglas Fabeke, expressed this regret, weekend, during an Economic and Empowerment Summit in Port Harcourt, in which the Organization also flagged off Ogoni face of peace and development pageant. The United Nation Environmental Programme marked 1000 days of the commencement of the cleanup process in Ogoni and the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development, CEHRD, who has been monitoring the project independently made some presentations. But Speaking at the Economic submit, Fabeke said people of Ogoni after the flag off of the remediation process had expected major changes in their land, but regretted that there has never been any form of improvement in the area.
Fabeke said that Ogoni people are still drinking polluted waters, explaining that if the project was on course that good drinking water would have been provided as recommended in the United Nation Environmental Programme Report, UNEP, on Ogoniland. He said: “The cleanup is a sham because you cannot have a cleanup when you cannot see the office of people doing the cleanup. A woman, her house is right in the pit where they are doing the cleanup, and yet there is no water for her to drink. “We do not know what is going on in Ogoniland. We have not seen any company doing cleanup. Some government regulatory bodies have been here and seen the pollutions and over all the communities we are doing a research and these people are still suffering under this heavy decade of pollution. So, where is the cleanup going on? Is it to go to somewhere, dig up a hole and put sand inside and say you are doing cleanup? Ogoni people are not feeling the impact of the cleanup.”
While expressing pain over the still security challenges in the area, Fabeke disclosed that OLI was pushing to engage the youths of the area and find out the reasons behind their involvement in crime. Fabeke said: “I brought in expert here today and they we are supposed to have a laboratory, we are supposed to train the youth. “We are right now on the process to meet all our youths, we know the cause of this insecurity and it has faces. It is the human beings that constitute insecurity and so, right now we are on the journey of making sure we get every youth involved and know why they take up arms.”
