…Wants Management Structures Reorganized

…Demands Financial Responsibility in HYPREP Operations

By Daniel Abia

The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to replace the entire board members of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP, praises the President for the bold step to change the agency’s coordinator.

Responding to the news of the replacement of Prof. Nenninbarini Zabbey as the Project Coordinator of HYPREP, President of MOSOP, Fegalo Nsuke said the minor re-organization was a welcome development and in line with MOSOP’s calls for reforms in HYPREP.

Nsuke noted that though the new coordinator is not of Ogoni origin, what is more important is to get HYPREP to be more functional and useful to the Ogoni community, noting that HYPREP in its current state is a scandal, “an epitome of corruption and financial recklessness”.

The MOSOP President alleged that the monumental fraud in HYPREP demands the sack of its entire management and not just the replacement of the project coordinator, adding that replacing the project coordinator alone is tantamount to putting a new wine in an old dirty bottle.

He expressed hopes that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will take further actions to sanitize HYPREP by sacking the entire boards and reorganizing the governing structures of the agency to rid it of the massive corruption and financial scandals for which the agency has been well known.

“The Project Coordinator does not act alone. In our view, we expect the sack of the entire governing structures of HYPREP to instill some more responsibility in its management” Nsuke said.

The MOSOP leader backed the appointment of a non-Ogoni, Dr. Olufemi Adekanmbi, for the position for the first time, noting that for 8 years, Ogonis have occupied the office with nothing to show for it.

According to him: “In the past 8 years, they have appointed Ogonis to that position and there has been nothing to show for it, not even water. HYPREP has only turned into a scandal of corruption. What we want now is results and if we get it from a non-Ogoni, that is fine. It wouldn’t really matter to us if we can see a more responsible and transparent leadership of HYPREP under the new coordinator, Dr Adekanmbi.” He said.

“Adekanmbi’s appointment as the new coordinator for HYPREP and the cleanup project is not a problem to us if he fixes the issues and does not see the appointment as an opportunity to make money. Though he is not an Ogoni, it wouldn’t matter to us if he does his job the way he should”