The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, has disclosed that concrete plans are underway by the Federal Government to develop Ogoniland.
Speaking in Abuja on Tuesday at a forum on environmental restoration of Ogoniland, the minister said the Hydrocarbons Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP) is not the body that will handle funds or deployment of those said funds regarding the Ogoni restoration efforts in tandem with UNEP.
She stressed that the forum is expected to come up with the appropriate structure or entity that would be put in place for the deployment and disbursement of the funds for Ogoni restoration.
Admitting that the Ogoni people have not been adequately carried along in the past developmental efforts, the minister said the trend would change due to a change of approach.
On his part, the President of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), LegnorsiSaroPyagbara, lauded the new efforts at genuinely developing the premier oil producing community.
He stated that the struggle for the emancipation of Ogoni people, though torturous, had been a worthwhile struggle.
“When we look back in the 90s when we started and where we are today, we believe that Ogoni has made some progress in terms of making the world know about their story. In terms of making generation, even yet unborn know that at certain point in our history, we did not just sleep but we rose up to say something needs to be done around the issues we consider very important,” he added.
He stressed that the new development initiative is the beginning of starting a new focus and chart a new direction in the implementation of UNEP report.
He said: “We are here today after almost three years after the release of the report and one two three years have gone and I think that whole delay was something that we did not welcome. ##
