British High Commissioner To Nigeria Lauds Ogoni Clean-Up

The British High Commissioner to Nigeria Richard Montgomery has lauded the ongoing clean-up in Ogoniland and wants the gesture to be extended to other oil-polluted areas in the Niger Delta region.

Montgomery stated this on Friday while speaking to journalists shortly after a closed-door meeting with the Hydro Carbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) Co-ordinator Nenibarini Zabbey at their head office in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, commended the progress recorded so far, urging the Federal Government to extend the same gesture to other parts of the Niger Delta region suffering from environmental pollution due to oil exploration.

“I have come here to listen and learn and understand the way this programme is being implemented and the commitment made both to Ogoni people but also from other institutions including the Federal Government and the oil companies, and my understanding is there is a system of monitoring in place and that is something which is the sovereign responsibility of the Nigerian government and also its relationship with communities,” he said.

“We will be following and looking to understand how the project is progressing in the coming months and in the coming years. Again, I want to pay tribute to Professor Zabbey’s team, they are doing a hard work. It is a complicated work. I come away with a good deal of positive optimism that real progress is being made and more is possible.”

On his part, explained that the diplomat was briefed on the developments on the project so far. He also disclosed that he intimated the British High Commissioner on how involved UNEP has been in the project as well as the United Nations Office for Projects Services (UNOPS) since his resumption as project co-ordinator.

The British High Commissioner was not the only one who visited HYPREP to see how the Ogoni Clean-up exercise was going.

Montgomery was not the only one who visited HYPREP to see how the Ogoni Clean-up exercise was going.

The Minister of State for Environment Iziaq Salako was also around to see the extent of work done on some of the various clean-up and restoration projects as well as push his “Plant 50 Trees” campaign around Nigeria.

After going around HYPREP’s project sites which include the Centre of Excellence and some remediation sites, Salako stopped by Birabi Memorial Grammar School, Bori, Khana Local Government Area to plant some trees.  He explained that he targets to plant 50 trees around the six geopolitical zones as a way of leading by example.

According to him, he chose to start from Ogoni in the Niger Delta region as tree planting will go a long in restoring clean air.