FG set to commence clean-up of Ogoni oil spill —Minister

The Minister of State for Environment, Alhaji Ibrahim Jibril, said on Monday that the Federal Government was set to commence the clean -up of oil spills in Ogoni land.

Jibril told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of the 2018 International Day for Preservation of Ozone Lay in Abuja that the exercise would begin before the end of this year.

NAN recalls that the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) had recommended initial release of one billion dollars to be used for the clean-up of oil spills for over a period of five years.

The clean-up exercise, according to UNEP, will take 25-30 years to restore the environment.

Much of the funding for the clean-up is expected to come from the oil companies.

The minister said that out of 200 million dollars expected from oil companies, 177 million dollars had been raised for the operation.

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“For 2018, 200 million dollars is expected but so far, the joint venture partners and NNPC had been able to raise 177 million dollars for the operation, which will commence soon.

“Right now, the procurement process is at the very last stage and very soon, we should be able to go to Federal Executive Council meeting to get approval for the contract to be awarded.

“We believe that we should be able to go to the field in the fourth quarter of this year to commence remediation exercise,” Jibril said.