Ogoni cleanup: MOSOP faults Buhari on new supervising ministry; Says $200m corruption allegation against HYPREP must be investigated first

Fegalo Nsuke, MOSOP President

• Calls for halt in further funding for corruption ridden cleanup exercise
• Insists government should investigate corruption allegations

The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has reacted to a presidential directive transferring the supervision of the Ogoni cleanup exercise to the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.

President of MOSOP, Fegalo Nsuke, in his reaction to the development, held that in the thinking of MOSOP, the directive only reflects internal skirmishes of government departments to outsmart each other and unlikely to address the corruption that has marred the Ogoni cleanup exercise.

Nsuke said it is MOSOP’s opinion that Mr. President could have been wrongly advised on this decision noting that the cleanup program was originally under the supervision of the petroleum ministry, was moved to the environment ministry under president Buhari and now has been moved to the Niger Delta ministry which will make no difference if the gaps that “have given rise to the looting” are not addressed. He held that supervising ministries do not make any difference, but the outcome of the exercise is what matters. He maintained that the entire cleanup exercise at the moment is highly corrupt and lacking in credibility and transparency.

The MOSOP president stressed that “the right steps to take at this time would have been to halt further funding of the cleanup programme and investigate the allegations we have made.” He said it was unfortunate that the government appears to be evading the critical questions of corruption in the Ogoni cleanup exercise which according to him are monumental.

“We have raised issues of corruption in HYPREP and the government cannot evade these allegations. We also insist that HYPREP cannot account for at least $200million (Two Hundred Million Dollars) and this is not the kind of figure a government that claims to be fighting corruption can overlook,” Nsuke said.

“So, the right thing to do is to halt all funding for the cleanup exercise and look into our allegations rather than switching supervisory ministries. We truly believe Mr. President has been ill advised in this circumstance and on this issue” Nsuke concluded.