11 February 2018, Sweetcrude, Port Harcourt – The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, MOSOP, has said resolving the Ogoni conflict will require multi-stakeholder discussions involving Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, the Federal Government and the people of Ogoni.
President of MOSOP, Mr. Legborsi Saro Pyagbara, said this in Boue, Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State, while addressing a meeting of MOSOP Kingdom Coordinators.
Pyagbara accused the Federal Government and Shell of deliberately encouraging conflict in Ogoniland by attempting to resume oil production without resolving the issues raised by the Ogoni people.
He said all parties to the conflict including Shell, the Nigerian Government and the Ogoni people must meet to resolve the Ogoni conflict which has led to the death of over 4,000 persons and a generation of Ogoni leaders..
Pyagbara, represented at the meeting by the Publicity Secretary of MOSOP, Mr. Fegalo Nsuke, also called on Shell and the Federal Government to show their commitment to respect the rights of the Ogoni people by initiating a genuine process that will bring all stakeholders to a discussion table to resolve the Ogoni conflict.
MOSOP also accused the Federal Government and SPDC of refusing to release funds for the clean up of oil impacted sites in Ogoni as recommended by the United Nations Environment Programme, almost two years after the project was flagged off.
According to MOSOP, “By attempting to resume oil production through allies of Shell like the NPDC, BelemaOil and RoboMicheal, the Federal Government is actually looking for a way to cause serious crisis in Ogoni and kill us like they did in the 90s.
“But we are also Nigerians and it is unfortunate that each time we protest against the violation of our rights, they either kill us or send soldiers after us, find a way to set us against ourselves or set our neighbors against us.
“They have split our country into 36 states and funded the states with money from Ogoni yet we have no place in Nigeria. This is the unacceptable level of violations we protest. We insist that in our country where we make significant contributions to national income, our political rights to self determination must be respected.
“Look at the cleanup, Shell and the Federal Government have refused to fund it. And we have no future without a clean environment because ultimately, if our land water and the entire environment are not restored, we will all die of strange sicknesses like cancer as we have started experiencing,” MOSOP said.