Ogoni stakeholders meet over killings, FG’s planned resumption of oil exploration
THE GUARDIAN
Stakeholders of Ogoni ethnic nationality in Rivers State have expressed concern over killings in the area, warning those involved in the dastardly act to desist forthwith or face community action and the full weight of the law.
President of Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme (KAGOTE), Emmanuel Deeyah, said in Port Harcourt at the weekend that the Ogoni leaders were working with the state government and security agencies to end the trend.
His words: “Lately, in Ogoniland, we have had cult related killings, and so, we are saying enough is enough. We are talking with security agencies so that henceforth anyone caught shooting even crackers should be arrested and prosecuted.
Deeyah, who spoke on behalf of Ogoni leaders, also alleged that the visit by a team of the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) to the area for purported resumption of oil exploration without consulting the leaders was a plan to massacre the people.
“Their ultimate plan is that when the Ogoni people resist them from prospecting for oil, they will be killing them with claim that the Ogoni don’t want development,” he said.
He said, Ogoni leaders have vowed that no company would resume oil exploration in the area without due consultation with them, adding that while the people were thinking of how to tackle insecurity in the area, they were again being confronted with the report of NPDC’s on their plan to resumption oil mining in Ogoni.
He stressed that any company that intended to explore oil in the area must meet with stakeholders, opinion leaders, insisting that the Ogoni were not ready to make the same mistakes they made with the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC).
Deeyah pointed out that Senator Magnus Abe, who is on the board of NNPC, was not in the picture of this development, while Senator Bari Mpigi, who is also an indigene of the area, was not also consulted.
MEANWHILE, Abe defied thugs’ attack on his supporters in Eleme Council during the inauguration of Rivers Voice of Freedom, a socio-political pressure group in the state working for his 2023 governorship project.