Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Members of staff of the defunct Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP) have sent a save-our-soul letter to President Muhammadu Buhari over their outstanding salaries from January 2013.
The letter, signed on behalf of the workers by Henry Ilamah, noted that following the recommendations of the UNEP Environmental Assessment Report on Ogoniland, HYPREP was established on July 20, 2012 as a special unit under the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
He said Nigerian professionals were invited from all over the world to contribute their quota to the country since HYPREP, which was supposed to embody responsive business activity was to be the first environmental clean-up in Nigeria.
Ilamah pointed out that two of the staff died in active service in 2013 without compensation till date, adding that the directive by the president that the outstanding salaries be paid following the adoption of the recommendations of the Inter-Ministerial Ad-hoc Committee (he (Buhari) ordered to be set up to sort out the salaries issue) has not been complied with.