He made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Port Harcourt on Tuesday on the sidelines of a memorial lecture to mark the 17th anniversary of the execution of the Ogoni 9 in 1995 and the murder of four other prominent Ogonis in 1994.
Sen. Abe urged the Federal Government to intensify more efforts at addressing the environmental concerns of the Ogoni people.
It will be recalled the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) report on Ogoni was released on September 2011 with a call on the Nigerian authorities to compel the multinational oil companies operating in the area to clean up the pollution caused by oil decades of oil exploration activities in the area.
Abe noted that the oil pollution in Ogoni land had contaminated both surface and ground water sources at levels more than 900 times above World Health Organisation-prescribed safety limit. He said that the level of pollution in the area was such that every Ogoni person was a potential cancer patient.
“The response to the UNEP report from the Nigerian government has been very poor; first after the submission of the report, it took almost a year before any visible step was taken.
“But up till now, we can see no visible movement on any immediate efforts to try to address the several issues raised in the report.
“Nigeria is fast becoming a society that only seems to respond to violence and agitations, but the Ogoni struggle is a peaceful, legitimate and just struggle.
“The UNEP report is a live document; no force can kill the truth and this is a document that is the result of a scientific study by international experts that meets every international standard; so where will they run to.
“We will get justice; but we have been talking to our people; we will not go the part of violence; we will go through the part of peace.”
According to Abe, who represents Rivers South-East Senatorial District in the senate, the high crime rate in the country is a result of absence of visible development programmes at the grassroots.
Source: Leadership
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