CONTROVERSIES have continued to trail the use of $572 million largesse by SPDC Joint Venture Limited made up of Shell, Total, Agip, and the former Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) by the Hydrocarbon Pollution and Remediation Project (Hyprep).
Hyprep was establsihed by former President Muhammadu Buhari – in line with the recommendations of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) – to coordinate the Ogoni clean-up and restore the heavily-polluted environment by oil companies.
Ogoni, made up of four local governments in Rivers State, was polluted by Shell, Total, Agip and the NNPC. Realising the magnitude of the havoc they had wreaked on the people of Ogoni, the polluters-in-chief set up the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) for the purpose of the clean-up exercise. And they pledged $900 million for the remediation work in line with the UNEP’s recommendations. The Federal Government, on its part, establshed Ogoni Trust Fund (OTF) to coordinate the use of the funds brought by the SPDC JV.
Out of the $1 billion recommendation, SPDC Joint Venture pledged $900 million (90 percent) that would be paid over five years. The group paid $180 million in July 2018 and another $180 million in 2019. It further remitted $212 million into the OTF in 2022, putting its total contribution at $572 million, amounting to 64 percent of the $900 million earlier pledged. Economy Post understands that the JV has not contributed any money since then.
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However, the largesse has created controversies as some villagers told Economy Post that they do not know where the money is.
“They are just using the money to do whatever they like. Our community has no water. Isn’t the money supposed to be used to provide water for our community and clean it up. So, where is the money they claim the oil companies brought?” asked Joshua Barinyima, an Ogoni native of Kpor.
Hyprep is supposed to provide water for all Ogoni communities but as of 2023 and 2024 when one of Economy Post correspondents visited the communities, several communities had no water. Nkporo Victoria, who hails from Gbe, one of Ogoni communities, said on the phone that nothing much had changed.
“We have no water up till now. We heard that the contract sum is $1 billion, but we do not see what Hyprep has done other than excavate land and fill it in with sand.”
According to an Eleme-based Mr Jeremiah Deko, the money contributed by SDPC was not being properly utilised. Mr Deko said Ogoni cleanup was expected to end in 2021 but was yet to be completed by 2025.
“The deadline for the end of Ogono cleanup was 2021. Four years after, half of the job has not been done despite all the money we hear was allocated to this project,” he noted.
Hyprep’s spokesman, Mr Kpobari Mafo, refuted these allegations when contacted earlier, saying that the work done by the organisation was there for all to see.
Major findings
Hyprep has a PR magazine known as Hyprep Herald. The July 2022 (Volume 1 No 4) edition published 57 remediation projects that were either completed or nearly completed by its contractors. Names of the contractors handling the remediation projects were listed but their contract sums were omitted. Efforts made to get the contract sums from Hyprep did not yield any result as the agency did not answer an email sent in this regard. Hyprep’s spokesman, Mafo, did not also provide these details then.
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Nevertheless, the reporter went on to investigate the status of the projects. Some of them were located in areas that were not accessible to non-natives of Ogoni. Some sites were located beside crude oil or gas pipelines or places manned by soldiers or political thugs. So, it was difficult for the reporter to access most of the sites.
However, 21 sites were accessed by the reporter. At Aleto Ngofa in Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State, Hyprep claimed in the magazine that it had remediated four polluted sites: lots 43-46. All the sites were located in the same place – beside Ngofa River. However, contrary to Hyprep’s claims that there were four sites at the location, there were only three sites. In other words, pictorial evidence showed there were only lots 43-45, and not lots 43-46 as claimed by Hyprep. In other words, Lot 46 was added to this project even though it did not exist.
Lot 43, Ngofa
“There are only three sites there. There is no Lot 46. We have lots 43-45,” said the Traditional Prime Minister of Aleto Ngofa community, His Royal Highness Nwosu Ngofa, who had vast knowledge of the project, said.
Hyprep also claimed that the unexisting Lot 46 site was remediated by a company known as Andelsta Limited. Checks at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC)’s register showed that the company was located in highbrow Maitama, Abuja. The CAC keeps records of all the legally existing businesses in Nigeria. Andelsta says on its website that it is in the business of oil spill clean-up, “Stop the Mosquito” project and property development. The reporter gathered that the amount of money allocated by Hyprep for the contract was over N20 million ($43, 478). Curiously, Andelsta did not name any project under the “Projects” section on its website, thereby raising an eyebrow as to whether it had handled remediation projects earlier. Experience is one of the prerequisites for awarding government contracts in Nigeria.
Andelsta Limited was contacted through its official phone number on its website. The recipient of the call, who said he was a web designer at the company, promised to provide an explanation after consulting with the project supervisor.
When the reporter contacted the web designer the following day, he responded: “Yes, I was able to speak with one of the project coordinators. My project coordinator said we actually did Lot 46. Every information you need, Hyprep can provide it for you,” the web designer said.
When pressed to provide evidence of executing the contract, he said he was not in a position to do so, asking the reporter to contact Hyprep for further information.
“My project coordinator said you can feel free to publish whatever you find,” he added. It was found that work done at Ngofa was shoddy. The lots were full of potholes. Also, the soil was not fertile as efforts had been made to plant in it after remediation but the seeds never germinated.
Lot 012 Debon Mogha in Gokana Local Government Area
Unexisting contractors
Investigations further revealed that Hyprep gave a contract for Lot 042 to Kanny Kay Limited – a firm that does not exist in Nigeria. Checks on the CAC portal showed that the company is not a legal entity as the regulator does not have its records. The company also does not have a website.
A lawyer, Mr Samuel Oyigbo, said it was illegal to award a contract to a company that was not registered with the CAC. According to him, it was equally possible for a company that originally registered with the CAC to cease from being a legal entity.
“You are expected to file your annual returns and pay certain fees over a period of time. If you fail to do so after some time, the CAC will remove you from its register because you are no longer, in law, a going concern,” Oyigbo explained.
“The CAC also considers it a crime when you operate without being registered,” he added.
One of the firms that received a contract from Hyprep is named Basic Nigeria Limited. The firm was awarded a contract to clean up Lot 2 located at Oboola Ebubu in Eleme Local Government Area. The company does not exist in the CAC portal, though its website says it is involved in remediation services. The closest firm found in the CAC portal is named Basic Data Technologies Nigeria, a data science firm located in Gombe State, North-East Nigeria.
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Another non-existing firm which was allowed to execute the contract in violation of the Nigerian laws is Avandale Supplies and Services Limited, whose records are also not in the CAC portal. Hyprep awarded a contract to this company to clean Lot 007 located at Nkeleoken, Alode Eleme.
Next is Tip Tree Nigeria Limited, which was given a contract for the remediation of Lot 017 at Bara Akpor, Botem, in Tai Local Government Area. NG-Check, which keeps records of all Nigerian companies, recognises only Tip Tree Intertrade Nigeria Limited, which is in international business. The company was registered on May 12, 1993. It does not have digital presence.
Yet another company that participated in the clean-up exercise in violation of Nigerian laws is Louizioni Ferreti Enterprises Limited which cleaned up Lot 018 at Buemene Korokoro Well 09 in Tai Local Government Area. It has a website which does not specify its business. The website describes it as a general contractor. However, the pictures of a pencil, measuring tape, and nails on the site show that it is in the wood/carpentry industry – not environmental remediation.
No previous experience
Oilserv Limited remediated Lot 031 located at B-Dere in Gokana Local Government Area. However, it did not mention this work as one of its recent or completed projects on the website. The company is a major contractor for Shell and the NNPC. More than 100 projects mentioned on its website did not include any previous environmental/soil remediation experience.
Similarly, Slot Nigeria, which handled Lot 048 at Okuluebu Ogale, Eleme Local Government Area, did not name this work on its website as one of the 23 projects it had executed. All but one of the 23 projects were contracts from Shell. None of the contracts showed previous remediation experience.
An email was sent to Shell to confirm if it was involved in the selection of contractors. However, its Media Relations Manager, Ms Abimbola Essien-Nelson, did not answer the mail despite acknowledging it earlier.
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Tinubu’s targets oil in Ogoni
President Bola Tinubu is planning to re-enter Ogoni for oil exploration. He told leaders of Ogoni last Wednesday to go home and resolve issues among themselves. “We cannot in any way rewrite history, but we can correct some anomalies of the past going forward. We cannot heal the wounds if we continue to be angry,” he told the leaders.
He plans to raise the nation’s oil production and therefore wants to return to Ogoni, which is heavily polluted and is yet to be cleaned.
“What we need now is to clean Ogoni and assuage frayed nerves. Re-entering Ogoni for oil production when the wounds are still fresh is bad politics and may trigger crisis,” said one Ogoni leader who pleaded anonymity.
Part of this report was originally published in Dataphyte.
