Abuja (Nigeria) – Nigeria has extended a hand of friendship to Niger-Delta Youths as it gears up for spilled oil clean-up exercise in the area.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Nana Fatima Mede, solicited the friendship when a three man delegation from Ogoni Youths Assembly paid her a courtesy call in her office.
The permanent secretary said, President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is aware of the devastating environmental degradation in the Niger Delta region and the “President shares in the pains and agonies of Ogoni people, especially as the government has often maintained that this administration is for the people.”
She stated that the presidential directive to fast track the UNEP report on the Ogoni land will be carried out without further delay and will not suffer unnecessary bottlenecks in making sure that the report is implemented.
“The UNEP report on Ogoni land is very comprehensive and government is poised to ensure that due diligence is enshrined in the execution of the entire report, not only in Niger delta but all other regions of the country experiencing oil spill”
She further enjoins the Ogoni Youth Assembly to sensitize their people in supporting the efforts of the present administration, more especially the implementation of UNEP report on Ogoniland in bringing succor to the people over the environmental degradation of past years.
Earlier in his speech, leader of the delegation, Piegbe Emmanuel Uebari, commended the effort of the Permanent Secretary of Environment in facilitating the process that led to the presidential approval of the fast tracking of the UNEP report on Ogoni land.
The leader of the delegation who painted a sorry picture of the effects of pollution on the people of Ogoniland stated that the clean up exercise will restore hope and reduce mortality rate being recorded in Ogoni land on daily basis.
He appealed to the Federal Government to include the youths of Ogoni people in the new governance framework of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration project (HYPREP) especially in the project management.
