ā¢ Movement okays resumption of oil exploration
ā¢ HYPREP unveils N27b Ogoni power project
The Peoples Advancement Centre (PAC) has blamed the MovementĀ for Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) for underdevelopment and neglect of Ogoni land, despite continuous campaign for justice and equity.
PAC came hard on MOSOP following the factionalisation of the group into five. Team lead of the Centre and an environment activist, Celestine Akpobari, lamentedĀ that no government or any responsible organisationĀ would listen to a divided people.
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Akpobari said: āLooking back at recent developments and happenings in Ogoni, we are seemingly a people looking forward, but walking backward. On the political, economic and socio-cultural fronts, we are more divided, disorganised and uncoordinated than any period in our history.
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āHow do we make progress when we have five different factions of MOSOP, a vehicle that is supposed to take us to our Eldorado?Ā
āHow do we expect any government, group and organisation to take us seriously when we are not united? How many Presidents preside over a country? How many drivers control a vehicle?ā
Akpobadi, therefore, said that the Ogonis mustĀ resolve the issue of leadership, stating that they cannotĀ make any meaningful progress in a situation where five different persons lay claim to being the President of MOSOP.
Meanwhile,Ā a factionĀ ofĀ MOSOP, led byĀ Fegalo Nsuke, has called forĀ the resumption of oil exploration in Ogoni after over three decades. It will be recalled that oil explorationĀ activities in Ogoni were stopped, following the gruesome murder of an environmental activist, Kenule Saro-Wiwa and eight others by the military junta of late General Sani Abacha in 1994.
HOWEVER, the Hydrocarbon Pollution and Remediation Project (HYPREP) has unveiled the Ogoni Power Project, tagged, āstar project,ā and will gulp over N27 billion in its first phase and willĀ link all Ogoni communities to the national grid.
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The organisation also stated that the second phase of the 14 water projects were earlier stalled by the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP), owing to unwarranted litigations since June 2022.
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Its Chairman, Board of Trustees, Dr Mike Nwielaghi, made the assertion at the 31st anniversary of Ogoni Day, saying some communities are currently enjoying potable water from theĀ projects, which commencedĀ three years ago.
NwielaghiĀ added: āThere is hope for more to be articulated in the first quarter of the year. We call on all Ogoni sons and daughters to continue to remain peaceful in our comments and expectations from the products of the struggle.ā