Environmental right groups has drawn attention of the world to the pains, misery and loss of livelihood in Ogoni, which results from decades of reckless oil exploitation and massive pollution of their environment by the Anglo-Dutch oil and gas major, Shell. The group which comprises Social Action in league with Ogoni Solidarity Forum OSF, Health of Mother Earth Foundation HOMEF, and other community groups are piqued by the inaction of the Nigerian government two years after the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report on Ogoni and are calling for an urgent declaration of a state of emergency on the Ogoni environment. Addressing thousands of Ogoni people and others who gathered at Bori, the traditional headquarters of Ogoni people to commemorate the second anniversary of the release of UNEP Audit Report on Ogoni environment, Celestine Akpo Bari, an environmental/human rights campaigner on behalf of the groups condemned what he called a criminal silence of the Nigerian government and Shell on the implementation of that report (also referred to as a death sentence) two years after its release. UNEP on the request of the Federal Government of Nigeria carried out an assessment of oil pollution in Ogoniland following over 50 years of petroleum exploitation. UNEP’s Ogoni report, which was released on 4 August 2011 showed massive and widespread pollution of land areas and wetlands of Ogoniland by Shell and the Nigerian government owned Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation NNPC. At the event, the people made the following demands which includes, that a state of emergency be declared immediately on the Ogoni environment and the area, tagged a “Disaster Territory”, Clean up all oil spills to internationally accepted standards, and in consultation with the community, and ensure independent verification of the clean-up, that Shell stops ongoing sale of its oil wells until polluted sites are cleaned up and adequate compensation paid to affected persons and families, that the Federal Government of Nigeria scraps HYPREP for the establishment of Ogoni Environmental Restoration Agency as recommended by UNEP and the Federal Government of Nigeria immediately make public names of persons already employed by HYPREP. It will be recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan set up a Presidential Implementation Committee (PIC), jointly headed by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke (who is chair of the Board of NNPC and a former executive of Shell) and the Minister of Environment to study the UNEP report and advise the federal government on the best pathway. Following the recommendations of the PIC, the Federal Government set up the “Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP)” on July 24, 2012 to Clean-Up the entire Niger Delta.
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