$360m Ogoni clean-up: Senate threatens HYPREP coordinator with warrant of arrest
The Senate Committee on Public Accounts has threatened to get a warrant of arrest against the project coordinator of Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), Prof. Nenibarini Zabbey, if he fails to appear before it on Tuesday, next week. Chairman of the committee, Senator Aliyu Wadada Ahmed (SDP, Nasarawa West), issued the threat on Tuesday after […]
The Senate Committee on Public Accounts has threatened to get a warrant of arrest against the project coordinator of Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), Prof. Nenibarini Zabbey, if he fails to appear before it on Tuesday, next week.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Aliyu Wadada Ahmed (SDP, Nasarawa West), issued the threat on Tuesday after the project coordinator failed to appear before the committee for the 7th time.
HYPREP had in November 2023 disclosed that $360 million had been released for the clean-up of the polluted Ogoni land in the Niger Delta.
“However, in the spirit of liberality, the committee resolves to give up to 4th of February 2025 for the project coordinator to unfailingly appear before it, or risks activation of relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution to compel him for the required appearance,” Wadada added.
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Senator Wadada said the committee wants to know why the project coordinator refused to honour the committee’s invitations. He said the committee also wants the coordinator to give details of appropriations for the project and other intervention funds.
He said the committee also wants the coordinator to disclose how much has been received from the federal government, give details of utilisation of appropriations in 2022 budget and an additional sum of N6.6 billion in 2023 for some undocumented contaminated and abandoned sites as well as details of utilisation of 2024 provisions, among others.
Others, according to Wadada, include providing evidence of remittance to the Federal Inland Revenue Service on value-added tax and withholding tax for 2022 to 2024.