The board of Hydrocarbon Pollution and Remediation Project (Hyprep) has released $360 million for Ogoni cleanup exercise after a Dataphyte’s investigative story indicting the agency.
Dataphyte’s story had exposed lies and half-truths told by Hyprep regarding the remediation of polluted sites in Ogoni, an ancient oil-producing town in Rivers State, South-South Nigeria.
Our investigation had found that one of the sites claimed to have been remediated by a Hyprep contractor, Andelsta Limited, did not exist.
Similarly, four companies that were listed by the agency as contractors were non-existent on the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) portal. They included Basic Nigeria Limited, Avandale Supplies and Services Limited, Tip Tree Nigeria Limited, and Louizioni Ferreti Enterprises Limited. Some sites at Tai Local Government claimed to have been remediated were not rehabilitated.
The statuses of several firms listed as contractors were inactive on the CAC portal, meaning that they were not filing annual returns to the CAC – a clear violation of the law. The firms whose statuses were inactive included: Environ Consult & Remedial Services, Environmental Resources Managers Limited, Erathpro, Centennial Investment and Development Limited, Earthquest International Limited, Marm Consulting Sevices Limited, Elizax Bleet Nigeria, Mosito Environmental Limited, Montego Upstream Services Limited, and Klartek Nigeria Limited.
Two of the companies, Oilserv Limited and Slot Nigeria, had no previous remediation experience. Our investigations also found that Hyprep had not provided water for Ogoni communities despite receiving money to do so.
Dataphyte story put pressure on Hyprep board, forcing them to release $360 million to Hyprep management out of the total $572 million brought by SPDC Joint Venture Limited (Shell, Total, Agip, and the government-owned NNPC). This means $212 million is yet to be released for the cleanup.
The report also forced Hyprep board to recently embark on a four-day tour of the remediated sites. Chairman of the board, Dr Mike Nwielaghi, specifically reacted to Dataphyte’s findings in an interview with local journalists. He refuted the claim that trees were not growing in some remediated sites. He also countered this newspaper’s investigations which found that there were no water projects in several communities visited.
“It has been a four-day intensive visit. We have gone to all the four LGAs. We have come and we have seen. In a way I can proudly say that we have conquered. As we speak, we have gone to remediated sites. Those sites that have been recovered, and we could see that grass and trees are growing. We will have to put a signal post on those sites to show that truly those areas have been remediated,” he said.
“Remediation work is an intangible activity. If you look at the fact that hundreds of dollars have been put underground, there could be no appreciation, because what we are seeing is the same grasses that are growing. I can say without fear of equivocation that there has been value for money spent on the remediation projects,” he added.
“A lot of water projects have been completed. These are reticulated water projects. The water goes round the communities. In Kpean, some people have started drinking water from the project. Barako is drinking, Terabor is also drinking. The PCO has come up with another 14 water projects meaning that the whole Ogoni has been covered.”
He, however, failed to address the issue of non-existing and inactive firms that were listed as contractors as well as a non-existing site and corruption raised in the story.
Project Coordinator of HYREP, Prof. Nenibari Zabbey, said the board had released about $360 million, noting that the project was going on successfully.
“We did this because it is the responsibility of the BOT/Ogoni Trust Fund to actually find out if we are spending the money they are giving to the Project Coordination Office prudently.
“The board of Trustees has released about $360 million. We have not exhausted that amount. We are still paying the contractors,” he added.
