Ogoni People Gives Fg 30-day Ultimatum To Implement Unep Report

Source: thewillnigeria.com

BEVERLY HILLS, January 04, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government has been handed a 30-day ultimatum by the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, to implement the recommendations of the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, on the clean-up of their land.

The MOSOP President, Mr. Legborsi Pyagbara, who made this assertion on Monday at the 23rd anniversary of Ogoni Day in Bori, Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State, lamented that the people of the area were already fed up with the continued delay in implementing the UNEP report on Ogoni.

He threatened that the Ogoni people would not relent in embarking on protests should the Federal Government fail to begin full implementation of the UNEP recommendations.

Pyagbara described as pathetic a situation where government had refused to execute the instructions of UNEP on the clean-up of Ogoniland more than four years after the recommendation was made.

While warning that his people would at the expiration of the 30-day ultimatum take to the streets in peaceful protests until the UNEP report was visited, he stated that, “As part of Ogoni Project 2015, we launched a multifaceted campaign involving protest, letter writing campaigns, media advocacy and international advocacy for the implementation of the UNEP report.

“We commend the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government for the renewed interest in the UNEP report and his approval of the fast-track actions for the implementation of the report.

“However, we are seizing this opportunity to remind the government that the unusual delay for the take-off of the project is becoming unbearable and indeed taxing our patience.

“We urge the Federal Government to without further delay bring into being the announced structures and the roadmap for the implementation of the report that respects the sensibilities of the communities.

“The ongoing delay on the part of the government will continue to be seen as an act of genocide being committed against the Ogoni people. We are giving the Federal Government a 30-day ultimatum to commence the implementation of the report or we will take up series of non-violent measures to press down our message.”

In an earlier remark, the Chairman of the occasion, Prof. Ben Naanen, called on the people of the area to form a united front in order to achieve the struggle of the implementation of the UNEP report.

This was as he vowed that the struggle for the actualisation of the freedom of the Ogoni people would not stop until their demands were met.