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Tag: MOSOP

  • MOSOP condemns violence, killings in Ogoni community

    The apex socio-cultural organisation of the Ogoni people, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has condemned “in strong terms,” the violence unleashed on the people of Akpako-Onne-Ogoni in Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State, occasioning arson and killings.

    It also called on the police high command to effect a thorough and comprehensive investigation into the incident, as well as ensure adequate security for the people of the community and its environs.

    MOSOP, through its President, Legborsi Saro Pyagbara, yesterday in an online statement from Abuja, noted that Ogoni people had always been known for peace, especially at this crucial time of Ogoni clean-up and full implementation of the recommendations contained in the report of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on environmental assessment of Ogoniland.

    It said: “It is saddening and unfortunate that Ogoni is in the news again, for the wrong reason,  especially at this time that peace is gradually coming into the area. Violence remains an ill wind that blows no one any good. Hence, the resort to dialogue in settling disputes remains the most ideal option.

    “The right to life is an inalienable right, protected by the Nigerian constitution (as amended) and other international instruments. No matter the degree of whatever may have been the grievance, the perpetrators had no right to have taken the lives of the victims.

    “While we sympathise with the families of the deceased and pray God to give them the fortitude to bear the irreversible loss, we call on the people to be calm.”

    The umbrella organisation of Ogoni people also admonished people of the Ogoni community and others to resist all temptations to take the law into their own hands, while assuring that efforts were being made to amicably resolve the conflicting issues.

     

  • MOSOP condemns invasion, seizure of Ogoni farmlands by militants

    MOSOP condemns invasion, seizure of Ogoni farmlands by militants

    The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has condemned the invasion of farmlands at Norkpo-Ogoni in Tai Local Government Area of Rivers State by over 80 militants from Ogu, headquarters of Ogu/Bolo Local Government Area.
    It noted that the invading militants were armed with sophisticated arms and ammunition, while being supported by natives of Ogu.
    In a statement yesterday in Port Harcourt, the state capital, by its Media/Public Affairs Advisor, Bari-ara Kpalap, MOSOP described the invasion by militants as a callous act of aggression to further threaten peace and security in the area as well as inflict major injury on the relationship between the two communities.
    The umbrella organisation of Ogoni people urged the state government and security agencies to halt what it called the expansionist land grab campaign of residents of Ogu against their Ogoni neighbours, especially Norkpo.
    MOSOP said: “The raid, which was carried out on April 7, led to the seizure of vast farmlands owned by the people of Norkpo. Upon violently chasing away innocent and harmless Ogoni farmers from their farmlands, the militants instantly apportioned the annexed lands to their people, who also commenced fencing of the allocated plots.
    “The invaders denied the Norkpo farmers the right to access and work on or harvest crops on their cultivated farms.
    “In mid-March 2017, MOSOP raised concerns regarding intensification of violent capture of ancestral lands of the people of Ogoni communities by the people of the neighbouring Ogu. We are also aware of petitions by the affected Ogoni communities, especially Norkpo, to the authorities, protesting the provocative land seizure actions of the Ogu people. Regrettably, nothing has been done by the authorities to address the issues.
    “Coming at a time when the tempest of insecurity in Ogoni has not abated, government and Ogoni people are working concertedly to return sustainable peace to the area. We are compelled to believe that the actions of our Ogu neighbours amount to sinister and unfriendly intent, influenced by expansionist interests. If not, how would one explain the reported involvement of the Ogu Divisional Council of Chiefs and the Ogu/Bolo Local Government Area in sharing the annexed Norkpo lands to citizens (individuals and families) of Ogu community?
    “Facts abound that heavily-armed Ogu attackers earlier invaded and sacked Ekporo-Ogoni community in Eleme LGA. The people of Kporgho-Ogoni in Tai Local Government Area of Rivers State also suffered similar fate, as they are refugees in various Tai communities. Alesa and Nonwa in Tai and Eleme local government areas are no exception. Unfortunately, complaints by these communities to the authorities have yielded no result.
    “We are deeply concerned at the attitude and inaction of the authorities to the plight of the people of the Ogoni communities. From the reported utterances of the people of Ogu, especially claiming that the present state administration of Governor Nyesom Wike is their baby, hence they can do anything and nothing will happen, there is need for the Rivers State government to take urgent steps to deal with the matter to convince Ogoni people that Ogu people’s claim is incorrect.”
    MOSOP urged men of goodwill to prevail on the people of Ogu to vacate the “grabbed” lands and allow peace to reign.
    It stressed that a natural boundary between Ogoni and Okrika communities exists conspicuously.

  • MOSOP, others insist on end to oil exploration in Ogoni

    The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) and other civil society organisations, yesterday insisted that the federal government must end further oil exploration in Ogoni land.

    They noted that oil exploration in the Niger Delta particularly in Ogoni has done more harm than good, adding that the recent appearance of black soot in Port Harcourt was one of the harmful effects of oil exploration in the region.

    Ogoni Solidarity Forum (OSF) and Social Development Integrated Centre (Social Action) and Ogoni indigenes in the area led the peaceful rally from Peace Centre, MOSOP secretariat to Hospital road in Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State.

    Some of the inscriptions on their placards include: ‘Oil is wicked’, ‘Fossil oil destroys our planet’, ‘With oil the feature is dark’, ‘A world without pollution’, ‘Ogoni say no to fossil fuel’, ‘Oil should remain in the ground’, ‘Our water, air and environment all polluted’ and more.

    Declaring the event open, MOSOP President, Comrade Legborsi Pyagbara, said both the state and federal government must find a lasting solution to solve the issue of black soot in Rivers State and other Niger Delta states.

    Pyagbara said what is happening to the residents of Port Harcourt was one of the reasons why Ogoni must join other voices around the world to stop the further exploration of oil in Ogoni land and other part of Niger Delta.

    “I’m happy that we have gathered here to continue the struggle for the common good of our people. I believe it is better to leave the oil on the ground because oil has done more harm to us. Today in Port Harcourt people are dying on daily basis over the appearance of black soot.

    “ As we are talking to you  now, even in Delta state, the people are  experiencing  the same thing.   We want the state and federal government to take a drastic action. What we are facing now is not an issue to be treated with lips service. What Ogoni people are facing today is enough messages that it is better to leave the oil on the ground.”

    The Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) Nnimmo Bassey, said Ogoni is very significant location for the struggle to end oil exploration in Nigeria, particularly in Niger Delta region.

    He said refusal to break away from fossil fuel is a call for the continuous pollution of air, land and a creek, stressing  that inability to break away from fossil oil is an unacceptable call for unchecked climate change.

    “ Even the late  Ogoni environmental activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa declared that silence is treason. We are here to tell the world that refusal to break away from fossil fuel sentences Nigeria to a corrupt political arrangement that breeds corruption, violence and conflicts.

    “How can our environment be clean if we continue to depend on a resource that is polluting from exploration, exploitation   and consumption stages? Indeed, fossil fuels remain polluting even in their post consumption stage.”

    The Coordinator of Ogoni Solidarity Movement, Comrade Celestine Akpobari, confirmed that federal government have paid some amount of money to the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Programme (HYPREP)

    Akpobari, however, blamed the immediate past administration for the delayed implementation of the UNEP report, adding that there is  need for government to think towards moving away from oil which he believes will help the young people to develop talents and skills.

  • Ogoni clean-up too slow, says MOSOP

    The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has expressed concern over the clean-up  of Ogoniland, saying “it is too slow.”

    ‘’We are very uncomfortable with this slow pace because the environmental pollution in the area is not lessening instead it is deepening and the more it is delayed the more it spreads and deepens, it said.

    Its spokesman, Bariara Kpalap told The Nation on telephone that the slow pace was not helping the situation, adding that people are still dying in large numbers from environmental pollution.

    The people who are mainly farmers and fishermen, he said, could no longer fish or farm because the rivers were destroyed by oil spills.

    “People are dying as a result of the pollution, our fishermen can no longer fish, the contamination of the waters have killed the fishes, so nothing has happened,’’ he said.

    According to him, the problem has not abated because nothing has been done to address the environmental pollution in Ogoni, adding that the environment still remains polluted.

    “We want this issue of pollution in Ogoni land to be resolved and we do not see how continued delay will help and that is why we are insisting that this whole thing should assume a level of response through implementation.

    “In a situation where it takes about six months for a fast-track action to be announced, it takes another six months or more for the Governing Council and the Board of Trustees to be announced and inaugurated, it takes another six months or more for ground breaking to be done, it takes another six months or more for kick off and just like that, the impact is not being felt.

    ‘’We want something that will be more pragmatic than it is now.’’

    According to him, because of this delay, people are beginning to lose confidence in the exercise, adding that they to feel that the whole thing is a trick.

    He urged the government to be committed to the clean-up, adding that the exercise must be active. ‘’I must confess that the pace is extremely slow, though the process is on because the project manager has just been appointed and he only assumed duties on the  March 1, I think that on assumption of duties, he will now have to organise the secretariat, get things in shape and begin to draw up action plan, a framework for the process, all these things will require time to develop and design after which the exact plan will now be sent to the governing council for approval before any meaningful implementation can take place.

  • MOSOP condemns threats to life of NDDC boss

    MOSOP condemns threats to life of NDDC boss

    The umbrella organisation of Ogoni people, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), has condemned the threats to the life of the Executive Director, Finance and Administration of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Derrick Mene, an Ogoni, and his family, by a masked group, the Niger Delta Revolutionary Crusaders (NDRC).
    MOSOP, yesterday in Port Harcourt, through its Media/Public Affairs Advisor, Bari-ara Kpalap, considered the threats as a demonstration of hatred and an affront against the Ogoni people, while calling on members of NDRC and their sponsors to have a rethink, warning that Ogoni will not take the threats lightly.
    The umbrella organisation of Ogoni people said: “While we are aware of citizens rights to freedom of expression, we do not think that such freedom includes threats to life. Hence, the threats undoubtedly amount to lawlessness. The current threats coming on the heels of other similar threats and at a time when the NDDC’s top official has not even settled down in office and regrettably based on frivolous grounds, we are forced to believe that there are more to the threats than they are painted in the media.
    “We are convinced that with his very enviable professional records and experience, Hon. Mene will not disappoint the Niger Delta people by involving himself in activities that will undermine the confidence reposed in him.
    “MOSOP believes that there are peaceful and non-violent options in dealing with grievances, where they exist, rather than the resort to threats to life and violence.”
    MOSOP also stated that since the NDDC was established in 2000 by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, no Ogoni had been appointed into any office of significance, yet the area had in the spirit of one Niger Delta, supported all previous officials of the Federal Government’s interventionist agency, without any tribal consideration.
    It noted that it was most unfair that now that an Ogoni son had been appointed, the nice gesture of the Ogoni people was not reciprocated, thereby appearing to them that there were persons in the Niger Delta, whose love for Ogoni was hate, while painfully observing the sort of situation over the years.
    The umbrella organisation of Ogoni people said: “Since there seems to be some conspiracy against Ogoni and we are in a very terrible period in our history, when human life means nothing to some people, when violence has replaced peace and dialogue, we will call on the security agencies to take every lawful step to protect the life of Hon. Mene and his family. We entreat you to ensure no lapses.
    “Ogoni, we must say, is an important part of the Niger Delta and without dispute, contributed immensely to the formation of the commission (NDDC). It is thus our position that other communities of the region should treat us with love and unwavering support, just as we have been doing to citizens of other communities of the region.”
    MOSOP urged all Ogoni people not to take the law into their own hands.

  • Ogoni clean up: MOSOP seeks quick replacement for minister

    Ogoni clean up: MOSOP seeks quick replacement for minister

    The President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Legborsi Saro Pyagbara, did not mince words while describing the competence of the outgoing Minister of Environment, Hajia Amina Mohammed, during a media roundtable organised by the umbrella organisation of Ogoni people on December 22.

    The roundtable on the implementation of the report of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on the environmental assessment of Ogoni land took place at the MOSOP Secretariat, Off Ken Saro-Wiwa (formerly Stadium) Road in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

    President Muhammadu Buhari, in 2015, appointed Mohammed as the environment minister. Mohammed, the Chairman of the Governing Council of the reformed Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP), was on December 15, appointed as the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General by the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres.

    The environment minister, immediately after her appointment by President Buhari, took special interest in the Ogoni clean-up and the implementation of the recommendations contained in the UNEP report.

    The UNEP’s team of environmentalists made 76 recommendations. 50 of the recommendations are for the government, 22 for the Anglo/Dutch oil giant, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) and four are for Ogoni communities.

    UNEP’s recommendations are divided into two parts. The first set of recommendations, once implemented, will have an immediate positive impact on Ogoni land, while the second set of recommendations has longer timelines and which when implemented, will be a path to sustainability that will bring lasting improvements for Ogoni land and Nigeria as a whole.

    MOSOP president said at the media roundtable: “Mrs. Amina Mohammed was not working alone on Ogoni clean-up. She was working with a team, including the Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Jibril. Definitely, we (Ogoni people) are going to miss Mrs. Mohammed. We are going to miss her passion, commitment, dedication to duties and hard work.

    “We are pleading with President Buhari to either elevate the equally-competent minister of state for environment or appoint a committed substantive minister of environment, in order to fast-track the Ogoni clean-up.

    “The Ogoni clean-up process has begun, but the actual clean-up has not started. The clean-up is to be done in an environment where there is nothing (no structure). You cannot compare the intervention in Ogoni land with the intervention in the Gulf of Mexico, already with Environmental Protection Agency for over four decades in the United States of America and it is one of the most highly-respected environmental protection agencies in the world.

    “The USA has already-established institutions that can respond immediately to such situations. The situation in Ogoni land is not like that of USA and that is why UNEP made recommendations about institutions’ building and having adequate structures on the ground, which are being addressed. Before the end of January 2017, there will be a Project Manager, who will be in charge of the day-to-day affairs of HYPREP. Applications were received from within and outside Nigeria.”

    Pyagbara also stated that the high level of youths’ unemployment in Ogoni land must be holistically addressed, stressing that if urgent measures were not taken to absorb the teeming young population that were graduating without jobs into gainful and meaningful employment, people would be looking for alternatives like illegal bunkering and pipeline vandalism to survive, while urging government at all levels and the private sector to rise to the occasion.

    He noted that there would be no way to address youth restiveness or criminality, without tackling unemployment.

    MOSOP president, who is also one of the representatives of Ogoni stakeholders on the Governing Council of the reformed HYPREP, also stated that for Ogoni clean-up to be successful, there must be peace in the area, stressing that without peace, there would never be the much-desired sustainable development and that nothing noteworthy would be achieved in the area.

    Pyagbara also stated that the UNEP report came as a result of the collective struggle of Ogoni people, who non-violently challenged environmental degradation that was taking place in Ogoni land, because of pollution from crude oil and gas.

    MOSOP president noted that the struggle led to the launch of the Ogoni Bill of Rights (OBR) in 1990, especially for greater part of Ogoni’s resources to be for Ogoni development; adequate and direct representation, as of right and the rights of Ogoni people to a clean environment, among others.

    While also speaking at the roundtable, one of the representatives of Ogoni stakeholders on the Governing Council of the reformed HYPREP, Dr. Batam Ndegwe, admonished all Ogoni people and other stakeholders to fully support the clean-up of Ogoni land and the full implementation of the recommendations contained in the UNEP report.

    MOSOP president states that: “As a response to the continuing destruction of the Ogoni environment, unparalleled military repression and horrendous human rights abuses in Ogoni land, that attended the prosecution of the non-violent struggle of the Ogoni people, the United Nations responded by creating the position of the Special Rapporteur on Nigeria in 1997 and appointed Mr. Soli Sorabjee to the position.

    ”In his report to the 48th Session of the then United Nations Commission on Human Rights in March 1998, the Special Rapporteur recommended that the Nigerian government should undertake an independent environmental study of Ogoni land.

    ”This was the setting that led to the invitation extended to UNEP in July 2006, within the context of the Ogoni-Shell Reconciliation Process, to carry out the environmental assessment of Ogoni land.

    ”The UNEP released its report on August 4, 2011. As a response, in July 2012, the Federal Government set up HYPREP.”

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in 2005, appointed Rev. Fr. Matthew Hassan Kukah (now Bishop) as the mediator between the Ogoni people and SPDC.

    As part of the reconciliation process, an impartial, international agency was to be appointed to undertake an environmental assessment and supervise the clean-up of the areas damaged by the effects of oil operations in Ogoni land.

    Buhari, on August 5, last year, approved many actions to fast-track the implementation of the  UNEP report on Ogoni land.

     

  • MOSOP wants women included in Ogoni cleanup

    The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) has stressed the need for women to be actively involved in the Ogoinland cleanup exercise.

    The President of MOSOP, Mr. Lebosi Pyabara, stated this yesterday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, during a two-day Niger Delta Women Regional Strategy Training on the Implementation of the UNEP report in Ogoni, organised by KEBETKACHE Women Development and Resources Centre.

    Speaking at the event, Pyabara said women should be included in the cleanup process, as they played a vital role in the actualisation of the struggle.

  • MOSOP rejects Ateke Tom, others for Ogoni clean-up

    The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has said the planned use of ex-militants in the implementation of the United Nations Environmental Programme’s (UNEP’s) report in Ogoniland is not acceptable.

    MOSOP, which is the umbrella body of the Ogoni, said the comments credited to the Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brig-Gen. Paul Boroh (rtd), were unsettling.

    According to MOSOP, Boroh said ex-militants would be part of the clean-up in Ogoniland and that he had met with ex-militant leader Chief Ateke Tom and other stakeholders on that.

    Speaking through its Publicity Secretary, Mr Fegalo Nsuke, MOSOP, in a statement in Port Harcourt yesterday, described Boroh’s comment  as part of a greater conspiracy by the Federal Government against the Ogoni.

    Nsuke said there was no security threat in Ogoniland to warrant the involvement of ex-militants in implementing the UNEP report as the Ogoni would cooperate with experts in charge of the programme for a successful implementation.

    He said: “MOSOP wishes to state that there is no security threat to the Ogoni clean-up exercise, except General Boroh is instigating one, which he will need to clarify.

    “Boroh’s statement is not only suspicious but corroborates our fears that the government has deliberately ignored the Ogoni environmental restoration project, citing frivolous excuses.

    “MOSOP notes that the Ogoni people awaits the implementation of the UNEP report and will cooperate with all agencies, including security personnel, to see that the programme is successful.

    “We are disturbed by Gen. Boroh’s strange security arrangements outside the Police and other relevant agencies charged with the responsibility to secure people.

    “MOSOP is worried about the security implications of Gen. Boroh’s  statement, especially his discussions with ex-militants like Ateke Tom, a non-Ogoni and an indigene of Okrika, who should ordinarily not play a role in the circumstance.”

  • MOSOP seeks unity among Ogoni politicians

    MOSOP seeks unity among Ogoni politicians

    The Legborsi Saro Pyagbara-led faction of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) has urged politicians of Ogoni extraction to speak with one voice.

    In a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Fegalo Nsuke in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital yesterday, the group said: “Building peace and oneness among Ogonis, in our opinion, cannot be achieved through inflammable statements, which would end up deepening the problem instead of providing answers.

    “It is for this reason that we call on Ogoni political leaders to be mindful of their utterances and actions to avoid igniting crisis in the area and risking alienation.

    “To us, the task of organising the Ogoni society for the actualisation of the common dream is enormous and requires our collective response, rather than the resort to worthless and shameful distractions as experienced in the past one week.

    “However, we are deeply concerned that at a time when Ogonis have decried and warned against further appalling attempts at dividing us, some local politicians are fanning the embers of division in the area.”

  • Ogonis set committee to resolve MOSOP crisis

    Ogonis set committee to resolve MOSOP crisis

    Ogonis have set up a committee to resolve the leadership crisis that has engulfed the umbrella body of the people, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) of recent.

    It would be recalled that the crisis reared its ugly head on December 30, 2015 when MOSOP conducted its election at Peace and Freedom Square, Bori in Khana Local Government Area (LGA) of Rivers State.

    At the end, two persons: Legborsi Pyagbara who has just completed his first tenure as President of MOSOP and Mike Lube-Nwidobie came up to claim that they had emerged President.

    The next day, Lube-Nwidobie ran for another rescheduled election at the same venue and later claimed to have been elected MOSOP President.

    Consequently, he was sworn in by the traditional ruler of Tai, Godwin Giniwa, thus throwing the MOSOP into leadership crisis.

    To resolve this crisis, some Ogonis made up of mainly some past leaders and activists of the Movement, Leaders of Thought and Elders from Ogoni met on Wednesday, January, 20, 2016 to seek means of resolving the crisis and properly repositon the MOSOP.

    In a statement issued on behalf of the Conveners, Mr Ledum Mitee in Port Harcourt Thursday, he said that at the end of the meeting, a Resolution Committee was set up.

    Members of the committee comprise of Mitee himself, Professor Don Baridam, Dr. Meshach Karanwi, Rev. Dr. Abraham Olungwe, Lenusikpugi  Kpagih, Chief Monday Abueh and Ms Rose Nwigani.

    The committee, he said is “directed to meet with all sides, including traditional rulers and other leaders from the area, with a view to resolving the crisis and reposition the Movement appropriately in order to meet its avowed objectives.”

    Mitee who handed over to Pyagbara also stated that “the meeting appealed to all sides to the present crisis to cooperate with the Resolution Committee and to refrain from actions or public statements capable of undermining the current peace process.”