UNEP’s final report on Ogoni oil spill ready soon for Jonathan

Guardian

17 May 2011

UNEP’s final report on Ogoni oil spill ready soon for Jonathan .

THE United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has concluded its environmental assessment in Ogoni and will soon present a final report to President Goodluck Jonathan.

The UNEP had assessed hundreds of impacted sites in the Ogoni area of Rivers State based on information provided by Nigeria’s National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, the Department of Petroleum Resources, Ministry of Environment, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria and satellite imagery.

A source, who pleaded anonymity at the UNEP office in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, disclosed to The Guardian that fieldwork conducted in several impacted sites in Ogoni four local government areas of Rivers State, had been concluded and the final report was almost ready.

The source revealed that the just-concluded general elections had contributed to the delay in the release of the report. According to him, the UNEP anticipates that the report should be presented to President Goodluck Jonathan shortly after the May 29 handover date.

Though the source did not disclose the details of the report, he explained that the report would be transparent, comprehensive and would at the end pave the way for the remediation of the several oil spill sites in Ogoni.