UNEP report: FG, Shell told to learn from Obama

August 04:

THE Social Development Integrated Centre has called on the Federal Government and Shell Petroleum Development Company to take a cue from the handling of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico by President Barack Obama and BP Oil and implement the United Nations Environment Programme report on Ogoniland..
The group, which is also known as Social Action, recalled how the Barack Obama-led US government collaborated with BP, the organisation responsible for the spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, to remedy the situation.
Executive Director of SDIC, Dr. Isaac Osuoka, who urged the Federal Government and Shell to show determination to clean up Ogoniland, decried the delay in implementing the report of the United Nation’s Environment Programme on the cleaning of the area.
Osuaka said on Monday in a statement signed by the Communications Officer of the group, Lillian Akhigbe, that Shell could also go on with the clean-up of Ogoniland should the Federal Government continue to foot-drag on the matter.
He explained that though it was government’s responsibility to protect the people, Shell could bring in experts to carry out a professional exercise to save the people of Ogoni.
According to Osuoka, “When the BP oil spill occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, there was an immediate response by the President (Barack) Obama-led US government and BP, the oil company responsible for the spill.
“It was a professional clean-up exercise, which involved thousands of people brought in by BP to do the job. High-tech machines such as remotely-operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) were deployed in the clean-up process.
“The Nigerian government and Shell should take a cue from the BP oil spill clean-up and show a high level of determination to clean up
Ogoniland where the environment is rapidly getting worse.

“If after three years of waiting for the implementation of the UNEP Report, the Nigerian government remains unwilling or unable to coordinate a thorough clean-up of Ogoniland, then the onus is on Shell – the polluter, to lead the clean-up process and bring in experts to carry out a professional clean-up.”
Osuoka, however, urged the Federal Government and Shell to urgently comply with the UNEP report by adhering to the recommendations of the UN agency and not sweeping it under the carpet.
He also appealed to civil society organisations within and outside the country to lend their voices on the matter to ensure it was not tossed into the archives.
“We also urge the members of the affected Ogoni communities to continue earnestly in their non-violent campaigns for the implementation of the UNEP report until the Nigerian government and Shell begin to pay significant attention rather than lip-service to the proposed environmental restoration of Ogoniland,” Osuoka added.
August 4, 2011, marks the third anniversary of the official presentation of the UNEP report to the 
Federal Government, even as civil society organisations and the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People continue to speak on the need to implement the recommendation of the UN agency.

Source: www.punchng.com/news/unep-report-fg-shell-told-to-learn-from-obama/?

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