Ogoni Cleanup: Contractors Begin Work Next Wednesday, Says FG

• Ogoni Cleanup: Contractors Begin Work Next Wednesday, Says FG

The Federal Government on Tuesday announced that the cleanup of Ogoniland would start with the handing over of the polluted sites to contractors next Wednesday.

It said the move would ensure effective commencement of the remediation process and insisted that the Ogoni cleanup was expected to be executed with the right specification within the time frame and budget.

In his address in Abuja, at a briefing to kick off the cleanup exercise, the Minister of Environment, Suleiman Hassan, said the government was expecting high performance from the contractors, as the work must be of good quality and durability.

He said the contractors were qualified to carry out the remediation process after meeting the mandatory requirement of being registered with the Cooperate Affairs Commission and the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, among others.

The minister faulted reports that the contractors were not suitable and stated that due process was followed in picking the contractors.

He said the government adopted a very robust and transparent process to arrive at the final list of contractors, having gone through all the required permits and that the firms all met the mandatory and regulatory requirements.

Presenting the contract terms to the contractors, the Project Management Consultant, Eric Onyeiwu, said the work must be of good quality, adding that the government would not entertain any undocumented claim.

He said there would not be any form of extension unless where necessary, urging the contractors to bear in mind that the work was time bound.

Onyeiwu said the terms of payment had been concluded in a way that the contractors would not experience difficulty, adding that advance payment of 15 per cent would be given to commence the work.

He said, “The payment will be in three instalments: The first 40 per cent will be paid after 40 per cent of the work is done and the second 40 per cent will be paid when the work gets to 80 per cent and the balance of 20 per cent will be paid after 100 per cent completion.”