The Project Coordinator of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP, Professor Nenibarini Zabbey, has assured that his administration will expedite the completion of over 130 ongoing projects in Ogoniland.
Professor Zabbey made this statement while addressing youths who visited the HYPREP office in Port Harcourt on Tuesday to demonstrate their support for his reappointment as the Project Coordinator.
President Bola Tinubu on Monday reinstated Zabbey as the Project Coordinator of HYPREP, after rescinding his appointment of Olufemi Adekanmbi last Saturday.
The President cited Zabbey’s good performance as the reason for his reinstatement.
His decision to replace Zabbey with a non-Ogoni generated negative reactions from Ogoni people and groups in the Niger Delta (who felt stakeholders were not consulted).
Speaking, Zabbey revealed that the projects have created direct employment opportunities for over 7,000 youths.
He said, “We have 130 ongoing projects in the area of remediation, water positioning, strengthening of hospitals or health systems, and a lot of livelihood
“And under remediation alone, we have remediation of contaminated land, we have shore line cleanup and we have a mangrove restoration project going on concurrently.
“These have created a lot of jobs for Ogoni youths. Our estimate is over 7,000 youths.”
He stated that HYPREP would train traditional rulers in conflict resolution to ensure the smooth progress of the cleanup project in Ogoniland.
HYPREP is the agency under the Federal Ministry of Environment responsible for handling the Ogoni Clean-up project on oil spill sites.