Ogoni Cleanup: HOUSE of Rep Committee Watch as HYPREP Aides Assault Protesters

There was mild drama on Tuesday when officials of Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) reportedly molested protesters during a visit by members of House of Representatives Committee on Environment to monitor the Ogoni clean-up exercise in Rivers State.

HYPREP aides, who bounced on the protesters, also destroyed the placards of the protesting activists led by Port Harcourt based activist, Stephen Deegbara.

The members of the Committee, who watched the drama and the beating of the protesters without doing anything to save the situation, were in Rivers to monitor the ongoing clean-up exercise in Ogoniland.

Deegbara, among his placards carrying protesters, was addressing the Reps members on perceived highhandedness on the Ogoni cleanup when the HYPREP attachés dragged him from the scene, seizing and destroying their placards before physically assaulting Deegbara and his colleagues who had to run for their lives.

Disturbed at the development, Holy Michael, Special Adviser to the President-General,Ogoni Youth Federation, accused HYPREP of applying divide and rule to “Perpetually Suppress Ogoni People and cover up massive fraud and in the cleanup process.