Protesters from Ogoniland stormed Port Harcout-Aba road yesterday to protest against their perceived political and environmental marginalisation in Rivers state.
The protesters who were under the aegis of the Movement for the Survive of Ogoni People (MOSOP) marched from Rumuola junction to Isaac Boro Park.
The President of MOSOP, Mr. Legborsi Pyagbara while addressing protesters said “the protest is our disapproval of the political campaign in Rivers State; we are not interested in the campaign in our communities. We are also using the protest to call on those who are concerned that Ogoni cannot wait for another four to eight years before we could be allow to rule.
“We have been in the wilderness. And we are tired, that is why we decided to tell the world that we disapprove the political decision against the Ogoni people. We demand an explanation because we have made a lot of sacrifices and we cannot continue to be taken for granted.”
“Twenty four years ago, we launched a struggle for the political emancipation, economic redemption and environmental restoration of Ogoniland after over 30 years of independence; today, Ogoni is still burning in the flames of withering injustice.
“It was this realisation that propelled us in line with the provisions of the Ogoni Bill of Rights (OBR) to launch the Ogoni Project 2015 which amongst others, sought Ogoni’s political representation in the position of governor of Rivers State come 2015. We provided all the analysis needed to convince whoever that cared about Ogoni that in the spirit of the principle of rotation, affirmative action and the federal character principle, this opportunity should be given to Ogoni come 2015. The parties had jettisoned this request of ours and had ignored Ogoni in the process, thereby humiliating all of us and making a mockery of the democracy which we all suffered for and nourished with our sweat and with the Ogoni blood. This is injustice.
“My dear brothers and sisters, wounded justice lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our motherland must be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme amongst the children of men.
“So we have come here today to dramatise the shameful condition in which the Ogoniman had been put politically in Rivers State. We have come all the way from Ogoni, men and women to the capital of injustice in Nigeria, Rivers State where fairness and justice had been undermined.
“We are here to demand a just and fair democratic system which treats every ethnic group equally and with fairness. We are here to declare that Ogoni has come to the point where we would not allow political traitors to continue to deceive us. As the late British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, stated, ‘Politics without morality is like a bicycle without break’. Those who cannot keep their words cannot be trusted.”
Leave a Reply