FOLLOWING the delay by the Federal Government to implement the United Nations Environment Programme recommendations, the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People said on Monday that President Goodluck Jonathan was promoting environmental terrorism in Ogoniland.
MOSOP President, Mr. Legborsi Pyagbara, who made this remark during a seminar to mark the third anniversary of the presentation of the UNEP Report to the Federal Government in Bori, declared August 4 of every year as Ogoni Environmental Day.
Pyagbara explained that the Federal Government had no plan to deal with the environmental crisis in Ogoniland.
He pointed out that the UNEP Report had raised awareness about one of the most challenging environment issues in Ogoniland.
The one-day seminar, which has its theme as ‘UNEP Report and the Search for Environmental Justice’, attracted many Ogoni sons and daughters to the Bori, the traditional headquarters of Ogoniland.
According to Pyagbara, “The UNEP Report on Ogoni environment has been acknowledged as a death sentence passed on Ogoni people. The report has raised awareness about one of the most challenging environmental issues of our days.
“Today, Ogoni is facing multidimensional issue that requires integrated and collective actions, yet, the government of Nigeria has no plan to deal with the environmental crisis in Ogoniland.
“The ongoing environmental terrorism is being committed against the Ogoni people by a government with a slumbering conscience; a government which has demonstrated in all sense that it cares little about the survival of Ogoni people; a government that has promoted positive actions for the continuous destruction of Ogoni environment to deprive us of the benefits and services we can get from the natural resources in our environment.”
Calling on President Jonathan to declare a state of emergency in Ogoniland, the MOSOP president said it was not late for the Federal Government to commence a full implementation of the UNEP Report in the area.
Earlier, the Chairman of the occasion, Chief Stephen Kpeah, explained that the cry for the implementation of the UNEP report in Ogoniland was beyond politics.
Kpeah urged the people of the area not to relent in their struggle for justice and enjoined all indigenes of Ogoni ethnic nationality to join in the struggle, notwithstanding of their political affiliations.
Source: The Punch
