Amaechi Okonkwo, Port Harcourt.
The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has praised yesterday’s judgment against the Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, describing it as a sign of “hope for the rest of the Ogoni people.”
In a press release in Port Harcourt, Thursday on the judgment, president of MOSOP, Fagole Nsuke, said the judgment delivered in favour of the Ebubu/Ejamah communities was an encouragement on the rest of the Ogoni people who sought justice following years of irresponsible business practices of Shell.
“The judgment further reaffirms our claims of environmental devastation of the Ogoni country by Shell. But more than that, it opens up a window of hope and relief for thousands of Ogonis whose lives have been turned miserable by state-backed repression and several others who lost their loved ones in the cause of seeking justice and redress from Shell’s genocide in Ogoni,” MOSOP said.
It regretted that, despite scientific and factual evidences against Shell, the Nigerian authorities had not considered a penalty for Shell and had, tacitly endorsed the genocide and repression of the Ogoni people, sustained the political discrimination against the Ogoni as a distinct ethnic nationality in Nigeria and encouraged multinationals to promote double standards, especially in the prosecution of business practices that they would not dare in their home countries.
The statement went further; “We are deeply pained that despite our enormous contributions and capacity to contribute to the Nigerian economy, in excess of NGN 20 billion daily, resources extracted from Ogoni are being deployed for the development of Abuja, Enugu, Lagos, Kano and other regions of Nigeria while the Ogoni people receive nothing from the resources extracted from the area.
“We note strongly that notwithstanding the reliefs brought by yesterday’s judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja, the Ogoni people desire to see some restitution initiated by the Nigerian government and Shell especially the decriminalisation of the nine Ogonis hanged by the Sanni Abacha’s military dictatorship on November 10, 1995.
We demand respect for the political rights to self-determination for the Ogoni, the right to dignified living and respect for the Ogoni identity as a distinct ethnic nationality in Nigeria.”
MOSOP also called for an overhaul of the so-called Ogoni clean-up project to make it more transparent, credible and urge a probe into the finances of its management following alleged obvious criminality and financial recklessness associated with the programme.
It called for an end to the use of repression to forcefully resume oil production in Ogoni and urged the federal government to refrain from further acts that endanger the lives of the Ogoni people, including backdoor moves to sneak into the Ogoni oilfields without the consent of the Ogoni people thereby provoking civil protests and endangering the lives of Ogoni people.