Ogoni: Between N400 billion Audit Queries and the Haste to Drill  

SOStainabilityWeekly

By Oke Epia, E-mail: sostainability01@gmail.com  | WhatsApp: +234 8034000706

Washing and Hushing

Ogoni land has long symbolised the Niger Delta struggle for social, economic and environmental justice. 70 years after the Oloibiri discovery of crude oil in commercial quantities, the Nigerian government is on the verge of restarting drilling in Ogoni after production was abruptly halted just over 30 years ago. While Oloibiri (in present-day Bayelsa State) and Ogoni (in Rivers State) represent two different eras in the chronology of the black gold, both places, however, bear the same brunt of the corporatist jackboot.

As the story of the Ogoni 9 – the scoured conscience of a prebendal state which gleefully inflicted fossil-induced violence on a community scorched by internal contradictions inflamed by the dialectics of divide-and-rule – is well documented, this piece will focus on recent developments that reinforce each other – one regarding audit queries from the House of Representatives to the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP); and the other relates to the strong push to resume oil production in Ogoni. It is assumed that a government desperate to resume drilling would prioritise, and indeed, elevate redress of past wrongs (especially environmental remediation) to the highest possible standard of transparency and accountability. Unfortunately, unfolding developments with HYPREP appear to paint a different picture.

Following the recommendations of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), the Federal Government of Nigeria officially launched the Ogoni clean-up in June 2016. To institutionalise and sustain the exercise, it set up HYPREP to ensure coordination. Ten years later, and with hundreds of millions of US Dollars sunk into the cleanup, stakeholders are sharply divided on the gains recorded. While officials thump their chests out of satisfaction with the work done to reclaim the polluted land and water bodies, critics describe the environment as remaining in dire state, in spite of humongous funds expended. While the Coordinator of HYPREP, Prof. Nenibarini Zabbey, had, in 2023, disclosed that the project received about $360,000,000 in funding, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Mike Nwielaghi, recently passed a vote of confidence in the coordinating body, saying: “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 grass that is growing. I can say without fear of equivocation that there has been value for money spent on the remediation projects.”

But a group, Ogoni Business Owners in America, has sharply disagreed. A statement by its president, Anthony Waadaah, claimed that “over $1bn has been spent in the name of the Ogoni cleanup project under HYPREP. Yet, if you walk through Ogoniland today, it does not look like a place where such a humongous amount of money has been spent. The water remains polluted, the soil is poisoned, the air is toxic, and our people continue to die of preventable diseases.” According to him, HYPREP has been hijacked by politicians and their cronies and used it as “a platform for enrichment instead of a mission of restoration. HYPREP, which was meant to heal our land, has been turned into a mortgage instrument trading the hope of our people for contracts and kickbacks. Instead of cleaning Ogoniland, it now harasses and intimidates those who expose corruption.”

Between HYPREP and its critics, the truth cannot be far-fetched. This is why observers should pay close attention to unfolding developments involving the project and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the House of Representatives. Earlier this month, the Committee issued a seven-day ultimatum to HYPREP to appear before it over allegations of financial misconduct contained in the 2021 and 2024 audit reports of the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation (AuGF). The PAC resorted to the ultimatum following repeated failure of HYPREP officials to honour invitations. The queries amounted to a whopping N400 billion. Chairman of the committee, Hon. Bamidele Salam, said HYPREP officials must appear before the committee by Monday, October 12, 2026, saying failure to do so would leave the House with no choice but to invoke its constitutional powers to compel appearance.

Among other things, the PAC is probing HYPREP for failing to submit its audited accounts to the OAuGF between 2017 and 2021; an alleged irregular award of contracts and non-deduction of statutory taxes amounting to $2.1 million; payment of N986 million for consultancy services without evidence of execution; irregular payment of N315 million for training; and N7.2 billion paid for poorly executed contracts. The project was also asked to explain the payment of N268 million without a prepayment audit, non-deduction of N32 million in statutory taxes, and the engagement of external solicitors for N31.8 million without approval from the Attorney-General of the Federation. The parliamentarians are demanding answers to the audit queries on crude oil recovery from remediation sites without proper documentation, the adoption of a progressive salary scale for contract staff, and extra-budgetary expenditure of N931 million. There was also alleged duplication of services through contracts worth N182 million, duplication of monitoring and evaluation functions valued at N507 million, and alleged irregular payment of N43 million for advertisements without evidence of performance. According to the lawmakers, the 2024 Audit Report also raised questions over an unverified N1.5 billion payment said to have been made as compensation by HYPREP, non-retirement of N14 million in cash advances, irregular payment of N229.1 million, and the payment of N260 million for a training programme without evidence that the programme was executed. Worse still, the AuGF report also alleged that access was denied to documents and records of projects worth N27.5 billion. As the 7-day ultimatum passed without any update from the House PAC, the issues raised are grave enough for concerned stakeholders to pause and reflect on the state of affairs in Ogoniland. If the government is accelerating consultations, why can’t it ensure that HYPREP is subject to legislative scrutiny? Transparency and accountability serve as a necessary foundation for mutual understanding, peace, and lasting resolution of the Ogoni crisis. There is no need to put the cart before the horse. As advocated by Waadaah’s group, the government should not be in “a hurry to reopen oil operations in Ogoniland. First, clean the land. Second, account for how the $1bn and the missing $300m were spent. Third, rebuild the trust that has been destroyed for decades.” While the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) is unrelenting in pushing for an amicable resumption of oil production, it would boost the confidence of stakeholders in an organic resumption of drilling