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N17bn Ogoni Cleanup: Senate Panel Issues 7-Day Ultimatum to HYPREP Coordinator

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The Senate Public Account Committee (SPAC) yesterday issued a seven-day ultimatum to the project coordinator of Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), Prof. Nenibarini Zabbey, over the N17 billion for the cleanup of polluted areas in Ogoni land.

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The committee at a press briefing in the National Assembly said the ultimatum followed the refusal of the HYPREP boss to honour its invitations.

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Zabbey was invited by the panel to provide details of the utilization of the N1.1bn in the project`s 2022 budget, and an additional N16.6bn in the 2023 budget “to clear some undocumented contaminated sites.”

Chairman of the committee, Senator Aliyu Wadada, (SDP Nasarawa West) handed down the threat.

He said the panel, in view of the behaviour of the head of the project resolved to give up to 4th February, 2025 for him to appear before its members.

He said if he fails to appear, other legislative measures would be invoked to compel his attendance.

It also demanded details of the utilization of the project`s provision in the 2024 budget, as and evidence of remittances it made to “FIRS (VAT & WHT) for the year 2022 to 2024”; as well as the general and current state of the Ogoni land.”

Wadada said HYPREP must further provide insights into appropriations for the project and other intervention funds, and how much it has received from the federal government.

He listed the number of times the committee extended invitations to Zabbey to include December 18, 2023, January 15, 2024, January 28, 2024, February 28, 2024, March 6, 2024, May 22, 224, and January 25, 2025 respectively.

He said: “As you know, based on the constitutional responsibilities on this committee, we are scheduled to take the position of coordinator of HYPREP today.

“Unfortunately, he is not here again and this is not the first invitation to HYPREP based on the response that the committee had, or got from him on status enquiry.
In fact, this is the schedule of the invitation extended to the coordinator of HYPREP.

“He wrote the committee on the January 12 2023 to explain his reason for not being able to respond to that invitation. And the reason was that he had an earlier engagement.

“The committee extended understanding and expected him on the 15 of January 2024.

“That also he did not respond and the reason was that he had to accompany his own minister to a function.

“The third invitation was on the 28 of January 2024 which he did not show up and no response was communicated to the committee.”

Wadada described Zabbey`s behaviour as ridiculous and further pointed out that if there was no Nigeria, the project coordinator`s excuses over holding meetings with the Minister of Environment (the project supervising body) would not have been possible.

He stressed that meetings with the supervising minister should not take pre-eminence over appearing before the National Assembly.

The committee chairman insisted: “The National Assembly is the people’s parliament and we are representing Nigerians here.

“So, meeting with the minister should not take preference over and above appearing before this all-important committee, particularly where a series of invitations were sent to him before now.

“The National Assembly as empowered by the constitution compels private sectors to account.

“It is most unfortunate, most unacceptable that a public agency like HYPREP which of course for every kobo that passes through the table of the coordinator`s office or goes to that project is from public treasury, and must be accounted for.”

The project was established to address the environmental challenges in Ogoniland in line with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Credit: source

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