Activities of host communities hampering Ogoni cleanup — Minister

The Minister of Environment Dr. Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar on Wednesday disclosed that some activities of the host communities were hampering the ongoing cleanup of Ogoniland.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja, the minister said, the first attempt at the clean-up of Ogoniland was domiciled at the wrong place, the ministry of petroleum, saying; “That was a mistake.”

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He, however, said the mistake has now been corrected as that responsibility now  resides with the ministry of environment”.

While accusing the host communities of actions that were not encouraging the process, he said: “The communities themselves at some points had some issues whether it was land, conflicts, traditional title tussle, that really brought some problems to us in executing the jobs.

“However we will do whatever is humanly possible to accelerate the process. We will continue to do that. What we want to do is to make sure that we deliver,” he said.

On pipeline vandalism,  Abubakar  said: “Unfortunately these are some of the things that have been caused by the very people that we are cleaning the land for, but we will continue to appeal to them. That is why we also talked about employment for them, so that they will not go and burst the pipes again.”

“Speaking on the recent 7th Ordinary Session of the Council of Ministers of Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall (PAGGW) on 29th July, 2021 in Nouakchott, Mauritania, the minister said President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to take over the Presidency of the PAGGW in September.