Ibrahim Jibril, minister of
environment, says the federal government will commence the clean-up of
Ogoniland before the month runs out.
Jibril said this on Wednesday
while speaking to journalists after the federal executive council (FEC)
meeting.
The minister had earlier said the
cleaning exercise would begin in August.
Jibril explained that the
structure, process and funding needed to carry out the clean-up had been put in
place, adding that there is no going back on the exercise..
He expressed hope that the people
of Ogoniland will have reason to smile soon.
“The good news is that the
procurement processes have reached the final advance stage. Yesterday the
ministerial tender board sat to consider the submission of the procurement
department of Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP and 15 lots
were up for grabs,” he said.
“On Friday, the governing council
of the Ogoni Trust Fund will meet and ratify this and we hope by the next week,
this letters will be out and the contractors will be mobilised to site.”
“There are some other five lots.
Because we are 21 in this first segment that are beyond the reach of the
Ministerial Tender Board and the Governing Council. So, that one will go to the
federal executive council, we have already written to BPP for no objection and
we hope to get the no objection hopefully by next week. So, the next two weeks
those five lots will be presented to the federal executive council for
approval.
“So I can assure you that we are
on course and there is no going back on the Ogoni clean up. This is the first
time that the federal government has put a machinery in place, no government in
the last 30, 40 years of oil pollution has done what this government is doing
now.
“The president made a promise in
2015, he charged us to actualise that promise, we took up the gauntlet, we put
all the governance structures in place, we did the governing council, we did
the Board of Trustees, we did the project coordination office and got a project
coordinator to put in place. We have advertised in the most transparent way
right from the month of March both national and international. Some of them the
Economist of London and we have gotten more than 400 companies who expressed
interest. We shortlisted after the technical evaluation and got 183 and these
the companies that were qualified to bid and pick the financials attached
therein and they did that, it has been ongoing for couple of weeks now and it
has been concluded and therefore I can confidently tell you that before the end
of this month, in the next week’s, there will be 21 companies that will be
mobilized to site to start the work.
“You must ask whether there is
funding, yes, of course there is funding. Again this is the first time the
government has done something. Because of the confidence that the oil companies
have in the government, because of the governance structures that are put in
place, the opening of the Ogoni Trust Fund will be able to mobilize a hundred
and eighty million dollars from the oil companies. Right from the NNPC, SPDC
and the ventures.
“They have mobilized $180
million. It is in the escrow account with the Standard Chartered Bank of London
and the Board of Trustee is managing that. So, as far as we are concerned, we
can beat our chest and say that the Buhari administration has shown the way
forward on this clean up exercise and we hope and pray that the people whom we
are working for will have cause to laugh and smile very soon.”
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