FG To Look in UN Report on Ogoni Oil Spill

The Minister of Niger Delta promises that government will champion the cleanup of Ogoniland

The federal government, on Wednesday, promised it would look into the United Nations’ report on the Ogoni oil spill.
This was made known to journalists by the Minister of Niger Delta, Godsday Orubebe, while receiving officials of the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in his office in Abuja.

The minister promised that federal government would study the report of the United Nations and meet with Shell and other oil companies on how to clean up the area.

A  UN report has had last week criticised Shell and the federal government for contributing to 50 years of pollution in Ogoniland, which it says needs the world’s largest ever oil clean-up, costing an initial $1 billion fund to kick-start the work and the total restoration could take up to 30 years.

The United National Environment Programme (UNEP) analysed the damage oil pollution has done in Ogoniland and stated that: “The environmental restoration of Ogoniland could prove to be the world’s most wide-ranging and long term oil clean-up exercise ever undertaken.”

Shell and the Nigerian National Petroleum Cooperation (NNPC) own most of the oil infrastructure in Ogoniland, although the Dutch oil giant was forced out of operating in the region by communities in 1993 who said it caused pollution that destroyed their fishing environment.

SPDC officials declined to answer questions from journalists on the indictment of their company by the UN report on the Ogoni oil spill by Daily News