The Federal Government said that the clean-up of Ogoni impacted communities would commence fully in October, this year.
The Minister of Environment, Ibrahim Jibril, disclosed this in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Tuesday, at a pre-contract awarding meeting organised by Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP.
Mr Jibril, who was represented by Ishayaku Mohammed, Senior Technical Assistant to the minister, said that the October deadline for the actual commencement of the remediation would be achieved.
“The stage we are now is part of the procurement process. We have 183 companies that have pre-qualified and had been asked to submit their documents to bid for the contract. “
All bids are supposed to end on September 24, after, there will be the financial evaluation. There is a timeline for each process. We have a matching order that by the end of October people should be seen in the field,” he stressed.
In his remark, the Head, Project Coordination, HYPREP, Marvin Dekil, said contractors for the project must have technical and financial competencies before being allowed to participate in the process.
“The Ogoni clean-up project like the Minister explained is going to be a template for the rest of the region, it is a very important project to the Ogoni people, Niger Delta people, for Nigerians and Nigeria government as well,” he added.
