THE Ogoni people in Rivers State have given the Federal Government a 90-day ultimatum to ensure the full implementation of the recommendations contained in the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report on Ogoniland. No fewer than ten thousand Ogoni people yesterday marched on Bori, the traditional headquarters of Ogoniland and the base of Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State. They also called for the scrapping of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP), put in place by the Federal Government in July 2012 and having as its National Coordinator, Mrs. Joy Nunieh- Okunnu, an Ogoni by birth. Ogoni people urged the Fed- UNEP report: Ogoni people give FG 90-day implementation ultimatum eral Government to set up the UNEP-recommended Ogoni Environmental Restoration Authority and establish the Ogoni Environmental Restoration Fund. The marginalised people also declared that the full implementation of the UNEP report would define Ogoni response to the 2015 elections. The protest march by the members of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) was conducted to mark the 19th celebration of the World’s Indigenous Peoples Day. The President of MOSOP, Legborsi Saro Pyagbara, while addressing the Ogoni people, maintained that the full implementation of the recommendations contained in the UNEP report was non-negotiable. Pyagbara said: “On June 29, 2013, here in Bori, we launched our Project 2015. In Project 2015, we have taken a dispassionate assessment of all aspects of Ogoni life since 1990, when we launched the Ogoni Bill of Rights and designed decisive activities and actions about what needed to be done between now and 2015, marking the 25th anniversary of the Ogoni struggle.”
Source: TheNation
