… Says Niger Delta Ministry Had Bad Intentions
Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has welcomed the directive by Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari for an audit of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP). President of MOSOP, Fegalo Nsuke, tweeted on his page @fnsuke this afternoon welcoming the news and insisting that massive fraud in excess of $200 million has occurred in the agency. Nsuke expressed hopes that the audit will be transparent and conducted with utmost integrity.
President Muhammadu Buhari had in a memo dated July 29, 2022 ordered an audit of HYPREP from its inception and approved its reorganization while the agency remains under the management of the Ministry of Environment.
Further responding to questions from journalists in Port Harcourt today, the MOSOP President, Fegalo Nsuke, said MOSOP was far more committed to the success of the Ogoni cleanup but was intolerant of abuses and corruption that has wrecked the process, Nsuke noted that though it was awkward to move the supervision of an environmental cleanup exercise from a ministry of environment to a ministry designed to purposely gratify the Niger Delta people, MOSOP was far more interested in the transparency and a strong commitment to the success of the cleanup exercise.
Dismissing the argument that the Ogoni Cleanup is a Niger Delta affair, Nsuke said the entire world has shown more commitment to the Ogoni cause and cleanup program than the Niger Delta ministry. He said if the argument of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs were to be taken seriously, then all the road works, healthcare interventions, educational institutions and all federal government intervention in the Niger Delta should have been routed through the Niger Delta Ministry.
The MOSOP President warned that the actions of the Niger Delta Ministry were already showing strong signs of creating internal crises in Ogoni with stories of its links to some impostors who claim to be representing Ogoni. He warned that the Ogoni people were averse to any move that threatened their peace. Nsuke considered the Niger Delta ministry’s attempted incursion into the Ogoni cleanup exercise as a crooked target at the cleanup funds.
“We are aware of some clandestine moves targeting the Ogoni cleanup funds and to get recommendation for an oil firm to resume oil production in Ogoni. through some impostors who claim to be representing the Ogoni people. It is unfortunate that Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs has been caught somewhere in this web” Nsuke said.
He advised the leadership of the Niger Delta Ministry to take its eyes from the Ogoni cleanup funds and not contemplate any possibility whatsoever that some Niger Delta nationalities will use impostors to control the Ogoni cleanup by any means. He further said certain people in the Niger Delta have been used to cause crises in Ogoni and MOSOP is closely watching this time around.