Ogoni clean-up is a scam –MOSOP President

…Faults call for oil resumption

Kelechi Esogwa-Amadi

The new president of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), Fegalo Nsuke, has described the much-hyped clean-up of the oil spill in Ogoni land as a scam.

He also condemned the alleged recent call for resumption of oil exploration in Ogoni Land by the Supreme Council of Ogoni Traditional Rulers.

The MOSOP president spoke on Monday, 20th May, 2019, during a phone chat with TPCN in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

He said the position of the Ogoni traditional rulers does not represent that of the people of the area, which is that oil exploration will not be resumed in Ogoni Land until the oil spill is cleaned up.

He wondered why the federal government would even contemplate resuming oil exploration in Ogoni Land without first cleaning the oil spill in the area as recommended by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), an action that violates the regulations of the UN agency.

As proof that the federal government is not sincere in the clean-up programme, Fegalo, who was the immediate past Public Relations Officer of MOSOP, said that none of the companies said to be engaged in the programme is registered.

Nsuke said the people of Ogoni are worried that the federal government decided to toe the path of insincerity.

“The so-called clean-up in Ogoni is a deception. They’re actually not doing anything. Nothing is happening. It’s all a scam,” he lamented, adding that the government is using the clean-up as a bait to convince the people of the area to allow oil exploration to resume.

The MOSOP president, who cried that his people are still dying from various strange diseases caused by the polluted water they’re drinking and other health hazards occasioned by the oil spill pollution, expressed surprise that any right-thinking Ogoni person would endorse the resumption of oil exploration in the environmentally battered area when the clean-up has not been done, in consonance with UNEP’s recommendations.

He, however, vowed that the people of Ogoni will not give up in their quest for justice and survival, insisting: “We will continue to speak our minds.”

TPCN can report that the planned resumption of oil exploration in Ogoni Land has been eliciting angry reactions from many concerned indigenes of Ogoni who feel that the federal government does not care about the interest of their people.

Former president of MOSOP, Ledum Mitee, has also added his own voice to the condemnation of the move by the federal government, insisting that the interest of the Ogonis must be considered first while consultations should be made with the people before oil exploration could be resumed.

Last week, the Gbo Kabaari Ogoni (Ogoni Elders Forum), wrote a letter to the managing director of NPDC, expressing concern that the company had ignored its earlier letter in which they raised serious concerns about the advertised re-entry of the Oil Mining Lease (OML)11 and called for dialogue.

In the letter, said to be jointly signed by the Chairman and the Secretary of the Forum, Senator Bennett Birabi, and Dr. Desmond Nbete, respectively, the group faulted the planned resumption of oil exploration without first properly engaging the Ogoni people in a thorough conversation.