By Baron Ike
The $1billion clean-up of Ogoni land in Rivers State which was launched by President Muhammadu Buhari last year has come under the scrutiny of the Senate.
The senate is worried that work has not commenced at the site despite the fanfare and noise that attended its launch.
On Tuesday, June 6, the senate therefore initiated moves to probe the Ogoni land cleanup as the Upper Chambers directed its committee on environment to investigate the implementation of the cleanup.
The senate directed its committee to also assess the progress of the Great Green Wall programme initiated to control desertification in the country.
Senator Oluremi Tinubu, Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment had moved a motion in respect of the clean-up that is not in ongoing as part of observation for the World Environment Day.
Moving the motion, Tinubu expressed dismay that despite the launch of the project, work has not commenced in the area.
Contributing, Senator Magnus Abe said there was nothing on ground yet to show that the clean-up was designed to actually cleanup the area, adding that farmlands were still polluted while rivers of oil spills still abound.
He urged the Federal Government to review the country’s environmental regeneration programmes to take care of environmental issues in the country.
Ogoni land is located in Rivers State on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, east of the city of Port Harcourt. It extends across the Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Khana, Gokhana, Eleme and Tae. In a 2011 assessment of over 200 locations in Ogoniland by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), it was found that impacts of the 50 years of oil production in the region extended deeper than previously thought.
Because of oil spills, oil flaring, and waste discharge, the alluvial soil of the Niger Delta is no longer viable for agriculture. Furthermore, in many areas that seemed to be unaffected, groundwater was found to have high levels of hydrocarbons or were contaminated with benzene, a carcinogen, at 900 levels above WHO guidelines.
In the 2017 Democracy speech by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo said the Ogoni Land clean-up was an environmental priority of the government which was why it began last year.