Christian women in Yeghe community of Ogoniland have embarked on hunger strike to protest the continual military raid and harassment on the community. Numbering over 2,000 the women have gathered at the community center, refusing food and embarking on a spiritual exercise to invoke the intervention of God in their predicament.

Speaking at the event, community woman leader Leedeesin Daadaan described the recent actions and raids by the Nigerian army in Yeghe and other Ogoni communities as genocide. Mrs Leedensi Daandaan, woman leader in Yeghe, Gokana Local Government Area said the killings, arrests, harassment, poisoning of drinking water sources, the subjection of the innocent women, children and other residents of Yeghe and Ogoni communities to perpetual fear have placed the people under conditions of death.

She noted that on Wednesday 8th of June 2016, three youths who have been invited by the amnesty office were arrested at a bank in Port Harcourt where they have gone to process documentation requirements for their monthly pay noting that nothing have been heard of the youths whose names were given as Legborsi Deebom, Liberty Ngbornonee and Endurerance Meakue.

Mrs Daadaan called for a thorough probe of the activities of the Nigerian army in Ogoniland insisting that the excuses given for the raids in Ogoniland were not enough to criminalise the entire community and people of Ogoni causing fear and sudden death all over.

Mrs Daadaan cited the case of one Mr Zorneebee of Yeghe community who collapsed and died after men of the Nigerian army forcefully gained entrance into his home. Zorneebee was said to be nursing a heart condition. He suddenly died out of fear on citing men of the Nigerian army in his home. She noted that not less than 10 persons have died in the past week from what seem to be heart related conditions as they suddenly slum and die.

“We are all going to die from fear if the world does not put pressure on Nigeria to respect of right to a dignified life and urge President Buhari to end the siege on Yeghe and Ogoniland by men in Bori camp barracks of the Nigerian Army. This is designed to kill all of us. Children are dying, men are dying and so also are the women dying. We need the president to intervene in the situation in Ogoniland and particularly in Yeghe,” Mrs Daadan said yesterday.

Recall that since February, men of the Nigerian Army have raided Ogoniland alleging the killing of its informant in Rivers State and in search of former militant leader, Solomon Ndigbara. The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has condemned the killing questioning the validity of the army’s claims about Yeghe and Ogoniland.

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