EXCLUSIVE: HYPREP Coordinator, Zabbey Diverts Billions Of Ogoni Cleanup Funds To Personal Company

Secrets Reporters

Corporate records and official project documents have raised fresh conflict of interest questions over the corporate links of Professor Nenibarini Zabbey, the Project Coordinator of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP, and companies that secured contracts under the Ogoni cleanup programme supervised by the agency.

Findings show that Zabbey, before assuming office as HYPREP Project Coordinator, was a director and person with significant control in companies operating in the environmental remediation sector. However, records indicate that he removed himself from the directorship of one of the companies shortly after his appointment, while another company where he previously served as a director subsequently emerged as a contractor handling remediation work under HYPREP.

HYPREP’s official project documentation identifies Earthpro Unique Integrated Limited as the contractor handling site characterisation and remediation works at the Ajeokpori Ogale site in Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State, a project being implemented under the supervision of the Project Coordination Office headed by Zabbey.

Corporate Affairs Commission records show that Zabbey was previously a director of Earthpro Unique Integrated Limited, a private company registered in March 2016 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. His current status in the company is listed as resigned.

The records further show that Zabbey was a founding director and person with significant control in DKN Earth Consult Nigeria Limited, a company registered on January 17, 2023, just months before his appointment as HYPREP Project Coordinator.

The company’s stated business interests include environmental risk assessment, oil spill contingency planning, environmental remediation, ecosystem restoration and other services within the oil and gas sector.

Zabbey’s directorship in DKN Earth Consult was removed on May 21, 2023, around the period he assumed office as HYPREP Project Coordinator. His shareholding in the company is currently listed as inactive with zero shares, while other directors and shareholders, including Dinebari Akpee and Emmanuel Dekoo, remain active.

The corporate records indicate that while Zabbey no longer appears as an active director or shareholder of either company, his previous corporate relationships with businesses operating in the same specialised sector as the remediation contracts supervised by HYPREP have raised questions over potential conflicts of interest.

HYPREP’s project records list Earthpro Unique Integrated Limited as the contractor for the Ajeokpori Ogale site, designated UNEP Code 004-001 and identified as SMR 003.

The project involves the characterisation, assessment and remediation of hydrocarbon impacted soil and groundwater in the area.

According to the latest available project status, the contractor had recorded 28 per cent completion.

Activities carried out include mobilisation to the site, field sampling and data collection, establishment of a site office, submission of a Site Characterisation Report and Remediation Action Plan, provisional approval by the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency to proceed to the remediation stage, construction of a biocell and the ongoing installation of electrokinetic oxidation technology.

The development places attention on Nigeria’s public procurement and public service rules, which require transparency and seek to prevent public officers from allowing personal interests to conflict with their official responsibilities.

The Fifth Schedule of the 1999 Constitution provides that a public officer shall not place himself in a position where his personal interest conflicts with his duties and responsibilities.

The Public Procurement Act also emphasises transparency, accountability and fairness in the award and management of public contracts.

HYPREP operates under the Federal Ministry of Environment and oversees the implementation of the Ogoni cleanup recommended by the United Nations Environment Programme.

The remediation programme is funded through the Ogoni Trust Fund, with hundreds of millions of dollars committed by the Shell Petroleum Development Company joint venture towards the broader cleanup, estimated at about $1 billion.

While the individual value of the Ajeokpori Ogale contract handled by Earthpro Unique Integrated Limited is not publicly itemised in the project documents reviewed, remediation contracts under the Ogoni cleanup programme have involved substantial expenditure running into billions of naira.

As of the date of the corporate records examined, Zabbey no longer appears as an active director or shareholder of Earthpro Unique Integrated Limited or DKN Earth Consult Nigeria Limited.

However, Earthpro Unique Integrated Limited remains listed as the contractor handling the ongoing Ajeokpori Ogale remediation project under the HYPREP programme headed by Zabbey, raising questions about whether his previous corporate relationship with the company was disclosed and how potential conflicts of interest were managed during the procurement and contract supervision processes.