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Pollution: HYPREP Eulogised for Implementing UNEP Report in Ogoni

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt
The Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), has been commended for implementing the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report on Ogoniland in Rivers State, following the age-long environmental degradation resulting from series of crude oil pollution in the area
The commendation was made at the 2023-2025 Midterm Stakeholders Engagement and Scorecard Presentation organised by HYPREP, held in Port Harcourt, at the weekend.
The stakeholders comprised of traditional rulers, political representatives, captains of industry, religious leaders, youths and women from across the four local government areas of Ogoniland (Elelme, Gokana, Khana and Tai), and other parts of the country attended the meeting.
A member representing Khana/Gokana Federal Constituency, Dumnamene Dekor said the HYPREP currently led by Prof. Nenibarini Zabbey has shown commitment in ensuring the speedy cleanup and restoration of the degraded area.
He acknowledged that HYPREP is currently tackling the myriads of challenges facing the Ogoni people, urging the stakeholders and youths to take ownership of the projects.
“Let me say that by my own assessment, the HYPREP we have today is doing their job with renewed vigour and I say that with all sense of responsibility.
“But particularly, let me thank Professor Zabbey for driving the activities of HYPREP the way he’s doing with so much passion and also the Honourable Minister for Environment, Balarabe Abbas.
“HYPREP as a project is to address those challenges that we have always complained about but I want to beg my people and particularly the very young people in our communities, to take full ownership and responsibility for all these projects because they are there to serve us,” he said.
Dekor, who is also Chairman House Committee on Host Communities, frowned against the vandalisation of HYPREP projects by persons in some communities and urged beneficiaries of the agency’s various empowerment programmes to make maximum use of them to better their lives.
He further disclosed that he has initiated a bill seeking to give full legal backing to HYPREP and to sustain the gains it has made, calling for support of all Ogonis to see to the success of the proposed legislation.
Also speaking, Nigeria’s former ambassador to the Republic of Netherlands, Oji Ngofa, commended the idea of stakeholders’ engagement, stating that such moves help to get stakeholders’ buy-in in the projects.
He however, called for a sustainability framework to ensure that the gains achieved through the project is not eroded.
Ngofa urged HYPREP to adopt the same model it used in the birthing of Water Consumer Association (WCA), in other programmes to get more community buy-in.
On his part, a former Vice Chancellor of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology now Rivers State University, Prof Barineme Fakae, lauded the quality of work done by HYPREP especially at the Centre of Excellence for Environmental Restoration, CEER, calling for full implementation of the technical committee report on the centre.
Earlier in his presentation, Project Coordinator of HYPREP, Prof Nenibarini Zabbey noted that the engagement was important because it allows the agency to present tangible evidence of progress in the Ogoni clean-up effort, reinforce accountability, deepen transparency and enables HYPREP to interact directly with the communities and stakeholders who are the heartbeat of the project.
He said the scorecard presentation was designed to show what has been achieved across key thematic areas, what challenges the project is currently grappling with, and what the road ahead looks like, re-affirming his commitment to the success of the Ogoni cleanup project.
Zabbey informed the stakeholders that HYPREP has recorded commendable progress in the implementation of its core mandates in line with UNEP recommended actions and the directives in the official gazette establishing HYPREP.
He explained: “HYPREP has successfully achieved the certification and official close-out of 50 remediated lots across 17 UNEP-assessed sites, under its Phase 1 Remediation of Simple Sites, secured NOSDRA certification and close-out for thirteen 13 Category N Sites.
These were locations lacking sufficient data, which HYPREP reinvestigated and found that natural attenuation processes have reduced the contamination to acceptable levels. Such sites do not require further remedial actions,” he stated.
Zabbey stated further that the clean-up of 1,700 ha of oiled shoreline is 53% completed, adding that agency is currently advancing the remediation of 39 lots across 17 medium-risk, complex sites covering 125.39 hectares of hydrocarbon-impacted land.
The sites, he said, involves remediating contaminated soil and groundwater outside residential areas.
He said HYPREP has launched the world’s largest initiative to restore oil-degraded mangroves in Ogoniland with the pilot phase, covering 560 hectares, is 93% complete.
The project coordinator also reeled out other achievements in areas of livelihoods restoration, employment for youths and women, potable water distribution, the Ogoni power projects amongst others.