Ogoni Day: MOSOP Demands Share in OML 11
…Wants Saro-Wiwa, eight others exonerated
Felix Barikui- Port Harcourt
The Movement For The Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, has unanimously demanded that Ogoni blocs in Oil Mining Lease (OML 11) be carved out from the existing concession agreement between Sahara Energy and WAGL and given to an Indigenous firm committed to the development of the area.
The demand was contained in a joint statement signed by the three contending factions of MOSOP and read on their behalf by King Samuel Nnee, Gbenemene Tai Kingdom and Convener of Supreme Council of Ogoni Traditional Rulers at Bori, the traditional headquarters of Ogoniland, during the 33rd celebration of the Annual Ogoni Day.
Feghalo Nsuke, Prince Nuyete Biira, and Engr Olu Andah Wai-Ogosu, who all claim the presidency of MOSOP, signed the statement.
The statement also called for the exoneration of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogonis who were brutality murdered by the General Abacha Military Junta in 1993 of any wrongdoing and also conferred posthumous national honors on all the 13 Ogoni martyrs.
“The commencement of a judicial review to clear the name of Ogoni Great Martyr Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa and eight (8) of his fellow martyrs and granting posthumous national honor to the foremost martyrs of the Ogoni struggle, also known as the Ogoni 13″, who was executed by the Nigerian State on November 10, 1995, during the regime of late General Sani Abacha”.
The monarch said the idea of Ogoni’s control of its resources resonates with the goals of their founding fathers and is enforceable within the context of extant laws of the Nigerian federation, calling for cooperation and support from all Ogonis to achieve the goals.
MOSOP also demanded the evacuation, resettlement, and rehabilitation of the Ogoni refugees in the Benin Republic and other countries who fled from Nigeria in the early and mid-1990s during the invasion of Ogoni communities by the Abachi-led military junta.
The body also frowned at the pace of work being done by the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP, calling on the agency to fast-track the evacuation of underground oil, provide potable drinking water, and establish a mechanism within HYPREP to compensate for livelihood losses due to environmental pollution.
Other demands presented by MOSOP include fastracking the Presidential Assent to the bill for an Act establishing the Federal University of Environmental Technology, Saakpenwa, in the Tai Local Government Area of Rivers State.
MOSOP appreciated President Bola Tinubu and Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State’s love for the Ogoni people.
Earlier in his address, Chief Derek Mene, chairman of the occasion, called for unity and love among Ogonis to move the area forward.
He also called on the youths to queue behind the area’s leaders and avoid acts that could cause disaffection in Ogoniland.
