By Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface
Mr. Celestine AkpoBari has justified his outburst and anger on some Ogoni leaders over their comments on the Banana Farm sited in the area by the Rivers State government. He said he was angry because, the Ogoni leaders were around and did not talk or do anything when 2,000 hectares of land were taken from local farmers who depended on it for their livelihoods and used for banana farm only to wait till now that they have harvested the bananas before pretending that they care about the people.
Mr. AkpoBari who is the National Coordinator of Ogoni Solidarity Forum gave the explanation in Bori, while addressing youths and students conference on Saturday, October 2, 2013.
Mr. AkpoBari who said he does not hate some Ogoni leaders as people may think due to his reaction to call for protest over Banana Farm told the youths that his anger was because the leaders were not available when the people needed their help most but rather, folded their arms and watched the farms taken away, houses burnt and over 17 Ogonis killed in Sogho over the project. He further narrated how “we went round communities, looked for people to help us” but no help came.
His words “I know most of you hear my voice over the radio. I was talking not because I don’t like our leaders. No. I like them so much. But I was angry that they were around in this place when they were taking that land and they did not talk. We went round communities, we looked for people to help us, we traveled with community people to Lagos to go and hire lawyers. In fact, at some point in this case, the judge threatened to jail the attorney general of Rivers State. She came to court because of the banana plantation. It was that bad. If we had our leaders behind us at that time, we would not suffer what we went through but they were driving and passing on that road. Only to wait now that they have harvested the banana, now that they have removed traditional landmarks, the place is now plain and if you ask community people to go back and take their land, it will be war. People will be killing themselves because there are no marks or boundaries anymore. Is it now that our leaders would be coming out to say “bananas are we monkeys?” I mean, it doesn’t make any sense! Where were you when they were doing these things? Where were you when they deployed the military to Sogho? Up till today the military is still stationed there. More than 17 people have been killed in Sogho and houses burnt because of banana. In Bori Camp, when I took some community people there, they almost detain us that “we invited only you why do you come with the whole community? And we say no! We don’t work alone, we work with community people. Several other things happened. I know that if those people and you people were there, many of these things would not have happened”.
It would be recalled that Mr. Celestine AkpoBari had earlier reacted in a radio interview monitored in Port Harcourt to a statement credited to Senator Lee Maeba, an indigene of Ogoni during the inauguration of Grassroot Development Initiative (GDI) in Bori in which he condemned the siting of Banana Farm in the area by Governor Amaechi and threatened to lead a protest against the project.
Mr. Kenneth Kobani, a former commissioner of finance under Dr. Peter Odili Administration in Rivers State had also joined the list of latest Ogoni leaders condemning the Governor Amaechi administration for siting the Banana Farm Project in Ogoni.
According to letters published in a report titled “Killing for Banana” (downloadable at http://www.saction.org) by a Port Harcourt Based Non-governmental organization, Social Action, the Banana Farm project was sited in 2011 by the Rt. Hon.Chuibuike Rotimi Amaechi led administration in Rivers State after a letter from the government dated May 15, 2011 was received by some Ogoni the traditional rulers and replied on May 16, 2011, in less than 24hours ceding the land to the government.
Source: African Gong