MOSOP urges FG to implement UNEP report

Worried by the environmental degradation in its area, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has called on the Federal Government to quicken the pace of implementation of the United Nations Environment Programme’s recommendation.

MOSOP also expressed worry that the delay in implementing the UNEP report would continue to expand the footprints of the pollution in Ogoniland.

President of the movement, Mr. Legborsi Pyagbara, explained that any further delay in addressing the pollution in the area would make the UNEP report useless, adding that another study will be needed to validate earlier findings.

Pyagbara, who recalled that UNEP had alluded to such fact in 2013, urged oil giant, Shell, to end an alleged divide and rule game of payments that had been causing conflict in Ogoniland.

The MOSOP president, who spoke with newsmen in Port Harcourt on Monday, also appealed to the Federal Government to pay compensation to Ogoni people in respect of the damage done to their environment.

“We call on the Nigeria government to quicken the pace of implementation of the UNEP report as any further delay would continue to increase the implications of the pollution as the pollution footprints would expand.

“Besides, further delay would affect the report itself and may require another study to validate its earlier findings. UNEP in 2013 alluded to this fact. We also call on Shell to end its dubious divide and rule game of payments that is causing conflicts in Ogoni communities.”

He stated that Ogoni people through MOSOP had proclaimed every 4th of August as Ogoni Environment Day and called on the people of the area, Ogoni communities and their supporters to join in celebrating the day.

“We remember this day with all sense of history and responsibility. This day did not just come. August 4th was the culmination of the struggles of our forebears, which began in 1990 in the Ogoni villages to the hallowed halls of the United Nations in 1998 when the UN Special Rapporteur called for the environmental study of Ogoniland.

“It continued to the 2000s precisely in 2006 when the Obasanjo administration invited the UNEP to carry out its study of the Ogoni environment to August 4th 2011 when UNEP finally released its report.

“This day therefore demonstrates the resilience, tenacity, strength and commitment of the Ogoni people to challenge the denigrators of their land and restore its pristine environment,” Pyagbara added.

He, however, lamented that the day also demonstrated the failure of the Nigeria government to protect its own citizens from the abuse of corporate power, corporate greed and environmental racism in Ogoniland and the Niger Delta as a whole.

Pygbara expressed the need for people to come together at the community level, school level, places of work on the Ogoni Environment Day to initiate discussions, promote awareness and positive action on the Ogoni environment in order to create a sustainable environment for the future of our children and posterity.