“I have always insisted on transparency and accountability on clean up” – HYPREP CEO

Transparency and accountability will continue to be the bedrock of the $1bn Ogoni Clean Up project, Nenibarini Zabbey, the Project Coordinator of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), has declared.

This is contained in a statement signed by Enuolare Mba-Nwigoh, HYPREP’s head, communications, who said the Project Coordinator had honoured the Senate’s invitation which carried threat of arrest.

He said the Coordinator reiterated his commitment to continue to run a transparent and accountable cleanup programme in Ogoni.

Nwigoh said Zabbey appeared before the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, stressing his long-standing stance on transparency and accountability.

”I have always been a strong advocate for transparency and accountability, even before assuming my current role as the Coordinator,” Nwigho said the Coordinator maintained.

As the head of media put it, briefing the Committee on the activities of HYPREP and efforts at ensuring accountability and transparency, the professor (Zabbey) noted that the Project was making significant progress towards accelerating the cleanup.

To further ensure transparency, the Project Coordinator stated that regular updates on the Project activities were being made on its website allowing the public to track projects’ progress.

Significantly, he said the Project Coordinator has introduced specific measures to ensure transparency and accountability in the cleanup project.

These measures, among other proactive steps, were said to include the monthly contractors’ meeting to ensure that works were carried out according to specification and within the timeline; the constitution of a Milestone Evaluation Committee that he said reviews contract milestones to ensure quality control and value for money, and the Technical Coordination Committee (TCC) for strategic technical guidance, plus the Remediation Document Review Committee (RDRC) for reviewing remediation site characterization and remedial action plans.

In line with its policy of transparency and accountability, he said HYPREP organizes regular stakeholder meetings with its stakeholders across strata, including youths, community leaders, Civil Society Organizations, sponsors, and regulators. “This has created a robust stakeholder paradigm that enables HYPREP to manage stakeholders by keeping them abreast of activities, extracting helpful feedback, and planning with them.”

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For fiscal responsibility, he said, the Project’s books were audited monthly, quarterly, and annually by internal, external, and the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation auditors.

Currently, he told the senate, HYPREP is implementing over 100 projects, namely, 39 Medium Risk Remediation Sites, 34 Shoreline Remediation Sites, 9 Mangrove Restoration sites, the constructions of the Centre of Excellence for Environmental Restoration (CEER), 100 Bed Ogoni Specialist Hospital, Buan Cottage Hospital.

Others, he named, were the provision of 14 water schemes alongside the completion of the remaining six water schemes (Phase 1 water scheme), construction of the Ogoni Power Project, and livelihood programmes.

“This is not to mention several other human capacity development initiatives, including the latest scholarship award to 300 Ogoni Postgraduate Students.”

He said the Professor apologized to the Senate Committee for failing to appear at previous invitations, citing office exigencies which he said were duly communicated to them in writing.

He stated that his office highly regarded the National Assembly and would not disregard the institution.

Nwigoh said the committee’s chairman, Aliyu Wadada, accepted the PC’s explanation and requested that HYPREP furnish the committee with more documents when they would appear later.