President Muhammadu Buhari will on Thursday flag-off the clean-up of Ogoni land which has been affected by oil spills over the years.
Sources in the State House told Thinkers Newspaper on Tuesday that President Buhari will use the opportunity of the historic visit to reassure people of the region that his administration is committed to alleviating their pains.
Attacks on pipelines and other infrastructure in recent times by resurgent militants have cut Nigeria’s oil production to some 1.4 million barrels per day, worsening revenue shortfalls caused by the global slump in crude prices.
In August 2011, a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report said Ogoniland in Rivers state may require the world’s biggest-ever clean-up.
Environmental devastation to farming and fishing in Ogoni land and other parts of the Niger Delta has been the major disadvantage of the country’s oil wealth.
In his nationwide address to commemorate his first year in office on Sunday, the President had promised to sustain and re-engineer the amnesty programme introduced by Late President Umaru Yar’adua in 2008 to solve the problem of militancy in the region.
