The Federal Government of Nigeria, Shell Petroleum Development Company, (SPDC) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Cooperation (NNPC), as well as Chevron, have been given 60 days ultimatum to work out favourable modalities for the reconstruction of Ogoniland devastated by several decades of oil pollution and neglect.

This is as the Nigerian government has been urged to pass a supplementary budget of N10 trillion through the National Assembly for the immediate reconstruction of Ogoniland or face legal action.

In light of the above, the President Muhammadu Buhari government has been called upon to be fast about its promise of connecting the entire Ogoniland to the national grid as Ogoni is presently in total darkness notwithstanding being the host of the Afam Power Station.

Making these demands in a statement on Thursday, the movement for the survival of Ogoni people, MOSOP, United States of America branch, MOSOP-USA, urged governments at all levels to immediately embark on measures to make life livable by bringing clean pipe-borne water, hospitals, educational institutions; skills acquisition and employment schemes for youths and women, good roads and security to the Ogoni people.

MOSOP-USA alleged that 64 years after commercial oil exploration and exploitation in Ogoniland worth over $500 billion and 27 years after the Judicial Murder of the Ogoni 9, including the globally famous writer, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Ogoniland still remains a completely environmentally wrecked and devastated territory in Nigeria such that “if a state of emergency is not declared and the Marshall Plan of rebuilding Ogoni is not undertaken, the Ogoni Ethnic Group shall go into total extinction by 2050”.

In the statement which was jointly signed by Elder Augustine DineBari Kpuinen, President, MOSOP-USA, Keesiiup Kponi, General Secretary, MOSOP-USA and Pastor Samuel TomBari Nweemuu, Public Relations Officer, MOSOP-USA after a 3-day meeting at Nebraska in the US to mark the 27th anniversary of the murder of Ken Saro Wiwa and other Ogoni-8, the group called on the federal government to exonerate and immortalize the Ogoni-9 and declare November 10 “Human Rights Day in Nigeria.”

On the herders/farmers clash, MOSOP-USA observed that “herdsmen with cattle are destroying Ogoni farms, raping our women, kidnapping and killing Ogoni people and destroying Ogoni forests and vegetation” and then called on the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Rivers State Government to “take immediate steps aimed at withdrawing herdsmen and their cattle from Ogoni farms and villages.

“After using our mineral resources for 64 years to develop other parts of the nation, leaving Ogoni in a heavily polluted environment with the worst drinking water in the world, according to the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) Report, it is inconceivable and heartless to still use our land as a grazing field for cattle. MOSOP-USA cannot stand watching our women being raped and killed, food and crops, forests and vegetation being used as feed for cattle grazing,” the group added.

It demands that government should completely rebuild the East-West Road to international standards, or permanently bar all trucks and trailers from using the road until it is fully reconstructed, adding that adequate compensation is paid to the families of all the Ogoni people and other users of the road who had lost their lives due to trailers falling on the people and cars and killing them due to the terribly deplorable state of the road. (Daily Independent)

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