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FG planning to convert wastes from Ogoni cleanup to electricity, HYPREP member says

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A member of the Board of Trustees of the Hydrocarbon Remediation Project (HYPREP), Mike Emuh, has disclosed that the Federal Government was making move to partner an energy foreign firm with a view to converting wastes from Ogoni land cleanup to electricity.

Disclosing this in an interview with Vanguard, in Abuja, Emuh said that the cleanup was yet to commence because of the issue of the wastes and the search for a suitable site where it can be dumped for the conversion to electricity.

Emuh, who is also the National Chairman of Host Communities of Nigeria Producing Oil and Gas, HOSTCOM said: “There was also a technical problem, which is if the clean-up takes off, where would the rubbish that was cleaned be dumped? Wherever it is dropped, it becomes toxic and becomes disastrous to health. Based on that, before the clean-up is started, you must have a site whereby the expected waste from the clean-up exercise can be converted to energy. 

“This type of arrangement is not yet practised in Nigeria. Get to Lagos and Kano and see the menace caused by wastes because of the population. If we are to carry out the Ogoni clean-up, we must have a company that would convert the waste to energy.

Accoding to him, the clean-up is presently at the demonstration stages and a number of companies are already at the sites displaying their competencies. 

He added that the project was delayed because of issues of locating a site where the wastes can be dropped for conversion to energy.

He also cited Nigeria’s economic recession and challenges in the Niger-Delta region which sharply reduced Nigeria’s revenue profile as part of the reasons that delayed the project.

He said: “The issue of the delay in the cleanup of Ogoniland, running to two years now, is as a result of the nature of what the project looks like, scientifically. Africa, and Nigeria, specifically, is not used to remediation projects. It has not been done before in Nigeria. 

“In terms of remediation, which is different from oil spillage clean-up, it has to do with getting back the original soil. A contractor, who is an expert in that, had to demonstrate it,” he said.

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