The European Union and United States have jointly urged the Federal Government to implement the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report on the cleaning-up of polluted Ogoniland.
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They also called on the government to pass the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and reform the electric power sector.
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In a statement issued on Monday in Washington D.C at the end of EU-U.S Joint Energy Council, the two economic blocs recognised the gains of the Amnesty Programme in the Niger Delta but urged, “the Government of Nigeria to follow up on the UNEP report on Ogoniland, to remedy the critical health and environmental problems facing this region and to further engage the oil companies and the international community on this issue.”
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It would be recalled that? UNEP released a report in August on the scale of environmental degradation in Ogoniland as a result of 50 years of oil exploration. The report said, “The environmental restoration of Ogoniland in Nigeria could prove to be the world’s most wide-ranging and long term oil clean-up exercise ever undertaken if contaminated drinking water, land, creeks and important ecosystems such as mangroves are to be brought back to full productive health.”
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