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The House of Representatives Committee on Host Communities has called for increased funding for the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project to enable it to complete outstanding projects under the Ogoni cleanup exercise.

The committee, led by its chairman, Dumnamene Dekor, made the call on Thursday after a two-day oversight visit to some HYPREP project sites in Ogoniland, Rivers State, while speaking to journalists.

Dekor said the initial funds provided for the cleanup had been utilised, adding that the level of project implementation had exceeded initial expectations.

He said, “We hear, read on the pages of newspapers and see on social media every day all kinds of millions and dollars. The funds are not available.

Let us understand that for this project to be sustainable, and for even the cleanup and all of that to be completed, much more funds are needed.

“So we call on all those who have a responsibility of ensuring that funds are provided to do the needful. The initial fund was like a take-off grant. So we have taken off much more than was expected.

“Those who polluted should come back to pay. I understand the NNPC, now Renaissance, formerly Shell, all of the other partners made this contribution. It is time for them to continue. So if they brought a billion dollars before, we’d be asking for much more than a billion dollars.”

He added, “There are some sites, mostly those very complex sites. Work will need to take off on those sites.”

The lawmaker also disclosed that the committee had initiated a bill to extend the cleanup exercise to other oil-polluted communities in the Niger Delta.

“Let me first of all inform you that this is a pilot scheme. And aside from the fact that we have issues of environmental degradation, as you can find in all other parts of the Niger Delta.

“What we have decided to do, because we have presided over all host communities, all bearing communities, what we have done is that the committee has come up with a bill, which we have also got HYPREP involved, the Ministry of Environment and all of the people that are supposed to be involved, they are involved in it,” Dekor said.

He commended HYPREP for its commitment to the cleanup, expressing satisfaction that all the projects visited were more than 80 per cent complete.

Dekor also praised the agency for empowering Ogoni youths with specialised skills that could be in demand globally.

“Many younger Ogoni have been trained in very specialised skills, skills that are sought after all over the world. I understand about 2,400 of them are listed, and the centres where they have been trained.

And we interacted with the students, and we are proud to see that in a couple of years from now Ogonis will be littered with all kinds of young professionals who have decided to devote themselves and take full advantage of the opportunity that HYPREP has provided,” he said.

Meanwhile, HYPREP’s Project Coordinator, Prof. Nenibarini Zabbey, said the agency had established more than 120 project sites covering various aspects of the intervention in Ogoniland.

Zabbey said the projects included environmental remediation, shoreline cleanup, provision of potable water, strengthening of hospitals, job creation and skills training for youths and women.

He said, “And today we are very excited to have the House of Reps Committee on Host Communities come to visit our project sites.

“We have over 120 project sites cutting across all the thematic areas that HYPREP is intervening in, from remediation to shoreline cleanup, to provisioning of potable water, strengthening of hospitals, creating jobs, providing skills for the youths and women of Ogoni.”

He added that the visit would give the committee first-hand knowledge of the projects and enable its members to make recommendations on areas requiring improvement.

Zabbey said, “So for us, it provides an opportunity for the committee on Host Communities to visit by themselves and be able to judge and make recommendations as to what we need to improve. So we are happy to host them.”