MOSOP Rejects Prison Project, Accuses Govt Of Plans To Build Military Barracks, Cemetery In Ogoni
The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) said its shocked by the decision of the Nigerian government to set up a prison in Ogoni despite our overwhelming rejection of the project. We are equally disturbed by the plans to build military barracks and a cemetery in Ogoniland.
MOSOP in a statement by its factional President, Fegalo Nsuke, said it considered these projects as death sentences, a direct reflection of the hate for the Ogoni people in Nigeria and government nonchalance to the priorities of the people especially as the prison project had been cited on a land initially meant for the construction of the Integrated Soil Management Center which should support the Ogoni cleanup exercise.
It called for the cancellation of these projects and a halt to further assault on the Ogoni people.
According to MOSOP, the Ogoni priorities at the moment are for Nigeria to respect the rights of the Ogoni people and end the discrimination against us, implement the UNEP report on Ogoni diligently commencing with the provision of portable drinking water and create jobs through deliberate investment in agriculture.
“We are worried that despite our overwhelming rejection of the prison, cemetery and militarization projects, the government will still contemplate these torture and repressive centers for Ogoni which has now commenced with the construction of a prison.
“It is regrettable that while it has taken the government over eight years to implement the UNEP report on Ogoni, over twenty eight years to dialogue with the Ogoni people on how to resolve the protracted oil conflict and demands for civil rights as contained in the Ogoni Bill of Rights, citing death centers like military barracks, cemeteries and prisons are so easy to implement for Ogoni.
“While universities and agricultural based industries are considered and cited in regions that make no reasonable contribution to national income, all Nigeria thinks about when it relates to Ogoni is repression and death. We call for an end to these deliberate policies that subject our people to death.
Indeed, the citing of a prison facility in Ogoni only dampens our hope of reintegration following years of state persecution. Prisons, military barracks and cemeteries designed to torture and kill the Ogoni people are a reflection of government disregard for civil rights and we completely reject these.
“We are profoundly disappointed that despite the alarming death rate in Ogoni demanding an immediate intervention in the health care system, a speedy restoration of the polluted environment and urgent actions to restore livelihoods destroyed by Shells many years of irresponsible business practices in Ogoni, our government only considers ways to further repress the Ogoni people simply for our oil.
“Indeed, these smacks the unrelenting execution of a genocidal programme subjecting our people to physical and psychological torture to death. It means to us that government do not care about the lives and happiness of our people and frightens us that our government remains undauntedly committed to oil extraction even at the heavy cost of Ogoni lives
“MOSOP wishes to alert the public of the inherent implication of these actions on civil rights in Ogoni and will hope that the world will not be silent while Nigeria executes this genocide against the Ogoni people”, said MOSOP.
