MOVEMENT for the Survival of the Ogoni People, MOSOP, says kinsmen and women of Ken Saro-Wiwa, in the Rivers State axis of Southern Nigeria, are currently living in great fear and frustration.
This seeming serious allegation is contained in a Save Our Souls like letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki Moon, and other world leaders among them President Barack Obama of the United States, that was made available to AkanimoReports on Sunday.
Copies of the MOSOP letter were sent to Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, the United Nations People Organisation, UNPO, Albania, Prime Minister, Antigua and Barbuda, Prime Minister, Argentina, Presidente, Armenia, President, and Austria, Federal Chancellor.
The others include Azerbaijan President, Barbados Prime Minister, Belgium Prime Minister, Brazil President, Bulgaria President, Canada Prime Minister, Chad President, Chile President, Colombia President, Costa Rica President, Croatia President, Czech Republic, Denmark Prime Minister, Dominica President, and Prime Minister, Dominican Republic President, Ecuador President, and Egypt President
The rest are leaders of El Salvador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, Gabon, Ghana, Georgia, Greece, Greenland, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Latvia, Luxembourg, Maldives, Mauritius, Micronesia, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Poland, Romania, Russia, Saint Lucia, Seychelles, Slovenia, South Korea, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago,
Uganda, Ukraine, Uruguay, Yugoslavia, and Zambia.
In the letter, Frank Jonah Chairman, Coordinators Forum. Vice President of MOSOP, and Kingdom Coordinator; NyoKhana Kingdom, Bartholomew Oluji, Vice President of MOSOP and Kingdom Coordinator, Eleme Kingdom; Nnaa Yeghebaa, Vice President of MOSOP and Kingdom Coordinator, Bori Central Unit; and Miigbara Tanee, Vice President of MOSOP and Kingdom Coordinator, Babbe Kingdom, alleged that the government of Nigeria and Rivers State in particular show no pretense in their programme to dehumanize, deprive and weaken the Ogoni forcing them to possible extinction. It is difficult to explain the conditions of social, political, economic and environmental trauma to which they are being condemned.
According to them, ”like in the 1990s, state authorities and their agents still sponsor attacks on local communities as strategy of intimidating, disorganizing and breaking people’s unity and resolve.
”In Sogho communities in NyoKhana kingdom of Ogoni, Rivers State Government has inflicted huge disaster in attempt to force the people to surrender their farmlands for purported military camp and banana plantation. The situation is most shocking, smacking of deliberate cruelty and abuse on the entire people and history of Ogoni.
”It started in 2011 when armed mobile police men of the Joint Task Force (JTF) shut and killed two men in open day light at a town square meeting. The men of the JTF had come to the village where the people held meetings to discuss the forceful survey of their farmlands by soldiers of the Nigerian Army. It is significant that till today nothing has been done concerning policemen that killed the innocent Sogho natives in cold blood.
”Today, Sogho communities have been razed down and people sent to forced exile. The number of people so far killed are above forty including those whose whereabouts are not known. There is a humanitarian crisis situation in Sogho, to say the least. They have no houses to live anymore. They hang out as refugees in neighboring villages. The are plagued by hunger and disease, having been forced out of their farms and places of abode. Record of death among and the elderly is high.
”No serious government can turn its back on the kind of situation in Sogho. We invite people to visit Sogho and see the situation. We demand that strong judicial investigation be conducted to ascertain the level of killing and destruction in Sogho and those responsible”.
On the non-implementation of the UNEP Report on pollution in Ogoni, MOSOP said, ”the terror of governmental impunity in Nigeria takes its toll on every aspect of Ogoni people’s life. Ogoniland lies in desolation, polluted and degraded. Poverty and disease is visibly strong. Death rate is very high. Reports of the United Nations Environmental Project (UNEP) attest to this. This report is unarguably a direct indictment on the practices and operation of the Nigerian system.
”However, one year after the report publication, instead of implementing the recommendations, government has gone about setting up a Hydro-Carbon Pollution Project (HYPREP). The people of Ogoni see this as a transmutation and attempt to consign the recommendations of UNEP to the dark tunnels of state corruption for which Nigeria is well known. Already emergent political contractors are beginning to canvas concern and love for Ogoni people. The intention and interest is not hidden. They want to hijack and make business of the UNEP recommendations.
”So far no consultations is made with the people. The ordinary Ogoni people who are affected by the pollutions and deprivations do not know what government and its agents claim to be doing. Issues of UNEP report on Ogoni are now discussed only in hotels rooms in Port Harcourt. Some members of the sacked Provisional Care-Taker Committee are in connivance in this scheme to destroy Ogoni. The Ogoni people condemn this in strong terms. It is unacceptable.
”As if not enough, government of Rivers State is said to be planning to create new land boundaries for Ogoni. This is sure programme to provoke crisis in the area.
It must be stated that we have come to a point where governmental leaders and their agents need to be told and warned as in the words of Abraham Lincoln that ‘No man is good enough to govern another without that other’s consent’. The democratic claims of Nigeria are huge fallacy. Who doubts disintegration of Nigeria, where unscrupulous greedy and corrupt-minded individuals are proclaimed leaders and entrusted with responsibilities of state?
”We must for our own good and sake of co-existence heed to the advice of Herbert Henry Lehman that ‘You can’t run a government solely on a business basis…Government should be human. It should have a heart’.
”The experience of the Ogoni people in Nigeria is a great indignation on their values, sense of dignity and existence. The people have endured, shown patience and peacefully protested this condition for long years. As the lands are polluted and wealth carted away so farmlands are forcefully seized without people’s consent. On daily basis people are been threatened by military and police harassment and intimidation. The Sogho situation is a clear example.
”We call, as ever before on men of goodwill, organisations and world community to come to the aid of Ogoni people. The people of Ogoni desire creative and sustainable live free from exploitation, intimidation and suppression.
”We appreciate God, all good people and organizations including the United Nations for the tremendous concern and support so far to address the plight of the Ogoni people”.
Source: AllVoices
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