Nenibarini Zabbey, project coordinator, Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), has commended BusinessDay Media for its contribution towards the preservation of the Niger Delta environment.
- +HYPREP lauds BusinessDay’s impact in Niger Delta
The HYPREP Project Coordinator made the commendation, when a team from BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinesDay daily and BusinessDay Sunday Newspapers (South South/South East Region), led by Patrick Ijegbai, visited him in his office in Port Harcourt.
The HYPREP Project Coordinator made the commendation, when a team from BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinesDay daily and BusinessDay Sunday Newspapers (South South/South East Region), led by Patrick Ijegbai, visited him in his office in Port Harcourt.
Recalling an incident that took place in the early 2000s, which involved an oil company in the region planning to embark on a project that would have resulted in the uprooting of mangroves and exposure of natural water bodies to hazardous chemicals, a plan he said environmental scientists, agitators and stakeholders in the region, including him, opposed, noting that BusinessDay published a comprehensive report on the incident that helped to draw national and international attention to the issue.
“That was how that plan was dropped and the mangroves were saved from extinction. So, I just remembered that BusinessDay has been there for us and I really commend you people for this visit,” he said.
Nenibarini, a professor, said a lot had been achieved in the ongoing Ogoni oil spill cleanup, with the degraded environment being remediated, destroyed mangroves and aquatic lives being rejuvenated and the people’s livelihoods being restored.
Speaking earlier, Patrick Ijegbai, general manager, Business Development and Partnerships (South South/South East Region) and leader of the BusinessDay delegation, said that the essence of the visit was to officially intimate the PC of the media outfit’s desire to identify with the ongoing cleanup exercise and in general, the environmental remediation initiative of the federal government and UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) with regard to the Niger Delta Region.
Ijegbai said that BusinessDay was impressed with the unprecedented achievements of HYPREP in Ogoni Land since Nenibarini Zabbey, became the project coordinator of the agency.
“We are much impressed with your performance in the Ogoni cleanup exercise since coming on board. We are therefore not surprised that Investment owners in the various Ogoni communities recently came together to pass a vote of confidence in you. PC sir, we are ready to partner with HYPREP to ensure that this noble objective of the federal government and UNEP is achieved.
“We strongly believe that under your supervision that the cleanup of the entire oil spill and restoration of livelihoods will be achieved within record time,” he said.
The BusinessDay GM, used the opportunity to inform the HYPREP Director of a round table forum that the media outfit is planning to organise, which he said would be an avenue to look at the economic benefits of environmental remediation in impacted communities.
