A MASSIVE explosion has occurred near a proposed banana plantation at Ueken community in Ogoni area of Tai Local Council, Rivers State.
Meanwhile, a faction of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has condemned the outgoing president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Joseph Daudu (SAN) for allegedly castigating Ogoni’s quest for self-determination.
The Guardian gathered that an improvised explosive suspected to have been planted near the controversial banana plantation went off yesterday morning.
Though no group has claimed responsibility for the blast, Ogoni have vehemently resisted the project, which is an initiative of the state government in partnership with a Mexican agricultural firm.
Some Ogoni activists opposed to the banana plantation had vowed that the project would be thwarted by all means possible.
Sources told The Guardian that shortly after the bomb blast, a team of anti-bomb disposal policemen where deployed to the scene where they defused two of the bombs.
When contacted, the State Police command spokesperson, Ben Ugwuegbulam, said he was not aware of the incident and claimed he was in Abuja. He promised to call back but never did as at press time.
Meanwhile, the Tai Local Council chairman, Mr. Gbenekanu Kuapie, who visited the scene of the blast, has assured of adequate security in the area. He advised those behind the nefarious act to desist or face the wrath of the law.
MOSOP factional leader, Goodluck Diigbo has said that the people of Ogoni were happier with their self-government, even if it may not give joy to the outgoing NBA president.
Diigbo said he understood how frustrated the NBA president may be since the murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa couldn’t stop the activist’s vision.
“Daudu is prejudiced as the former legal aide of Abacha who ordered the judicial murder of Saro-Wiwa – the founder of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) that actualised the Ogoni self-government. I consider Daudu as a man lacking in clear conscience and unfit to give advisory opinion on any legal question relating to the political autonomy of the Ogoni people.”
He alleged that the Abacha regime, for which Daudu worked, also murdered 3,000 innocent Ogoni children, men and women, before it ordered the hanging of the Ogoni Nine.
Source: The Guardian Nigeria
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