•Movement okays resumption of oil exploration

•HYPREP unveils N27b Ogoni power project

The Peoples Advancement Centre (PAC) has blamed the Movement for Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) for underdevelopment and neglect of Ogoni land, despite continuous campaign for justice and equity.

PAC came hard on MOSOP following the factionalisation of the group into five. Team lead of the Centre and an environment activist, Celestine Akpobari, lamented that no government or any responsible organisation would listen to a divided people.

Akpobari said: “Looking back at recent developments and happenings in Ogoni, we are seemingly a people looking forward, but walking backward. On the political, economic and socio-cultural fronts, we are more divided, disorganised and uncoordinated than any period in our history.

“How do we make progress when we have five different factions of MOSOP, a vehicle that is supposed to take us to our Eldorado?

“How do we expect any government, group and organisation to take us seriously when we are not united? How many Presidents preside over a country? How many drivers control a vehicle?”

Akpobadi, therefore, said that the Ogonis must resolve the issue of leadership, stating that they cannot make any meaningful progress in a situation where five different persons lay claim to being the President of MOSOP.

Meanwhile, a faction of MOSOP, led by Fegalo Nsuke, has called for the resumption of oil exploration in Ogoni after over three decades. It will be recalled that oil exploration activities in Ogoni were stopped, following the gruesome murder of an environmental activist, Kenule Saro-Wiwa and eight others by the military junta of late General Sani Abacha in 1994.

HOWEVER, the Hydrocarbon Pollution and Remediation Project (HYPREP) has unveiled the Ogoni Power Project, tagged, ‘star project,’ and will gulp over N27 billion in its first phase and will link all Ogoni communities to the national grid.

The organisation also stated that the second phase of the 14 water projects were earlier stalled by the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP), owing to unwarranted litigations since June 2022.

Its Chairman, Board of Trustees, Dr Mike Nwielaghi, made the assertion at the 31st anniversary of Ogoni Day, saying some communities are currently enjoying potable water from the projects, which commenced three years ago.

Nwielaghi added: “There is hope for more to be articulated in the first quarter of the year. We call on all Ogoni sons and daughters to continue to remain peaceful in our comments and expectations from the products of the struggle.” (The Guardian)

•PHOTO: [FILE] A truck drives along a high pressure oil pipeline in Ejamah-Ebubu, Ogoniland in Rivers State, southern Nigeria, on August 23, 2021. – Oil firm Shell has agreed to compensate the Ejamah community and three villages in Ogoni community in southern oil and gas-rich Niger delta, which recently won $11 million in compensation to the community over a 1970’s spill that polluted over 225 hectares of their farmlands and fishing waters. (Photo by PIUS UTOMI EKPEI / AFP)

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