UNEP report has vindicated us, says Ogoni activist

Business Day

5 August 2011

UNEP report has vindicated us, says Ogoni activist

The environmental assessment report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) submitted to President Goodluck Jonathan Thursday has been described as a confirmation of the outcries by activists and the masses over the rate of environmental abuse by oil companies in the Niger Delta region.

Speaking with Businessday in Port Harcourt, Celestine AkpoBari, national coordinator of the Ogoni Solidarity Forum (OSF), said the human rights groups that have been at the forefront of condemning the environmental woes in the region were not surprised at the outcome of the UN assessment.

“The Ogoni report validates our claims on the damage to the Niger Delta environment and also presents grounds for more work to be done,” he said. AkpoBari recalled that they had vehemently protested an earlier report by UNEP under Mike Cowing which attributed 90 percent of the oil spills in Ogoniland to sabotage by Ogoni people.