The people of Ogoni in Rivers on Friday thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for the launch of the clean-up of their environment and other oil impacted communities in the Niger Delta. King Godwin Giniwa, Chairman, Supreme Council of Ogoni Traditional Rulers, said his people were happy that President Buhari kept his promise of implementing the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report... Legborsi Pyagbara, President, Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) said the launching of the implementation of UNEP Report confirmed Buhari as a man of integrity... Pyagbara said environmental restoration of Ogoniland was a central plan of their struggle... "Our strategy of non-violence has been vindicated with the launching of the clean-up of our land initiated by the President," he said.
[Now, in addition to the government,] Shell also needs to act. The company claims to have improved its response to spills... But last year, Amnesty International and the Centre for the Environment, Human Rights and Development, which is based in Port Harcourt, discovered that the company had made false claims about its clean-up of spills in four locations in Ogoniland.
...[The] start of the official clean-up was this week welcomed by community leaders, and international and domestic NGOs...[including] Mene Michael Porobunu, a...leader [of the polluted Bodo community]... But some neighbouring communities said they were angry that they would not benefit from the clean-up, despite strong claims that they have been heavily impacted by pollution.