…seeks immediate establishment of Ogoni Trust

By Davies Iheamnachor

PORT HARCOURT: Ogoni ethnic nationality in Rivers State have demanded a fair deal in the Oil Mining Lease, OML11, and assigning of oil blocs in the area to indigenes of the area as one of the prerequisites for the resumption of oil business in the area.

The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, stressed that the Federal Government carves out Ogoni blocs in Oil Mining Lease (OML 11) from the existing concession agreement between Sahara Energy and WAGL.

MOSOP made the call in a joint statement signed by the President Engr. Olu Andah Wai-Ogosu, and it’s past factional leaders Feghalo Nsuke, and Priince Nuyete Biira, after its 33 edition of Ogoni Day.

The statement was read by King Samuel Nnee Gbenemene of Tai Kingdom, who is also the Converner of Supreme Council of Ogoni Traditional Rulers on behalf of the Ogoni people.

The Ogoni demanded that the oil blocs in OML 11 be carved out and be given to an indigenous firm that would be committed to the development of Ogoni communities.

Nnee said: “MOSOP demands the unbundling, removal or carve-out of the Ogoni fields from the existing Financial and Technical Services Agreement (FTSA) between Sahara and WAGL for the OML 11 concession and the assigning of the Ogoni bloc to an indigenous operator that is acceptable to all parties and willing to make concessions and commit a fair proportion of its earnings for Ogoni development through the immediate establishment of an Ogoni Foundation or Trust.

“The details of the operationalization to ensure transparency and effectiveness will be made known in a couple of weeks,”MOSOP said.

Nnee called for the clearing of the names of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogonis who where murdered during the Gen. Sani Abacha military junta 1993 of any alleged wrongdoing and also confer posthumous national honours on all the 13 Ogoni martyrs.

He lamented that about 500,000 barrels of daily crude oil was trapped under the Ogoni soil since 1993 that Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, exited Ogoni land due to disagreement with the people.

He said: “The commencement of a judicial review to clear the name of Ogoni Great Martyr Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa and eight of his fellow martyrs and granting posthumous national honour to the foremost martyrs of the Ogoni struggle, also know as the Ogoni 13”, who were executed on November 10, 1995 during the regime of late Gen. Sani Abacha.

He said the idea of Ogoni control of its resources resonates with the goals of their founding fathers and are enforceable within the context of extant laws of the Nigerian federation, urging the Ogoni’s to support the ideas.

The body also frowned at the pace of work being done by the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP, calling on the agency to fastrack the evacuation of underground oil and provide potable drinking water and also establish a mechanism within HYPREP to compensate for livelihood losses due to environmental pollution.

The monarch tasked the President Bola Tinubu for Presidential Assent to the bill for an Act establishing the Federal University of Environmental Technology, Saakpenwa in Tai Local Government Area of Rivers, even as he thanked the President and Gov. Siminalayi Fubara for their love towards the Ogoni people.

Meanwhile, Mr Enuolare Mba-Nwigoh, the Head, Media and Communications, Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, who represented the project’s Coordinator, Prof Nenibarini Zabbey assured the people of Ogoni of the agency’s commitment to ensuring environmental sustainability in the area.