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Clean-Up Underway in Ogoniland, Nigeria

On Thursday, June 2, 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari flagged off the clean up of polluted and degraded Ogoniland in Rivers State in line with the recommendations of the report of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

For a milestone event, it didn’t come without its intrigues. At a time when militants in the Niger-Delta have started blowing up oil pipelines and issuing threats to the military and oil companies, the president’s presence at the event was always going to be a touchy issue.

To Hajia Amina Mohammed, the minister of Environment, the flag-off of the implementation of the UNEP report is a timely relief from decades of environmental degradation, pollution and hardship for the people of Ogoniland.

According to her, the clean up exercise requires a collective responsibility, transparency and accountability from relevant stakeholders, adding that the federal government will extend the gesture to other parts of the Niger Delta that are suffering from environmental degradation and pollution

She said, “I think it’s important to look at the back drop. First of all, it was a campaign promise he (Buhari) made before coming into office. We came into office in November (2015) and very quickly attended the climate change conference that lasted two weeks.

Luka Tomac/Friends of the Earth International

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