Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has raised an alarm over what it regarded as a plot to attack its secretariat in Bori, Ogoni in Rivers State.
According to a press release signed by the MOSOP Asst. Secretary General Alex Akori, an attempt was made on Thursday, February 6, 2020 by a group “led by Keeper Gbaranor, sponsored and funded by a faction of KAGOTE and oil resumption campaigners to disrupt a MOSOP Steering Committee meeting, cause crises in Ogoni and further dehumanize the people.
“Credible information available to MOSOP indicates that the target is to attack the workers at the MOSOP Secretariat, weaken MOSOP’s resistance against Shell and forceful oil resumption, cause a security problem and possibly invade Ogoni with the military.
“MOSOP has been enmeshed in a battle with Shell and her allies following failed attempts to induce the President of MOSOP, Fegalo Nsuke, to accept forceful oil resumption in Ogoni.”
Akori recalled that on January 4, 2020, a faction of KAGOTE created a group led by one Keeper Gbaranor to, according to him, cause crises in the movement.
“The KAGOTE group orchestrated the arrest and detention of the President of MOSOP Fegalo Nsuke and announced its cronies as an Interim Management for MOSOP.
“In its reaction then, MOSOP condemned KAGOTE’s desperation and noted that KAGOTE as a separate organization cannot form an executive for MOSOP at its will nor is KAGOTE empowered under the MOSOP constitution to interfere in the affairs of MOSOP”, he recounted.
Nsuke, according to him, was elected on December 19, 2018 at a general election held at the MOSOP Secretariat in Bori.
Meanwhile, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has listed four conditions as necessary for resolution of the Ogoni crisis.
Top amongst them is exoneration of the nine Ogoni activists led by writer and poet, Ken Saro-Wiwa, who were murdered on November 10, 1995 by the Nigerian state.
This was part of the resolutions of a Central Committee meeting of MOSOP held on February 6, 2020 and presided over by the President of the movement, Fegalo Nsuke, at the MOSOP National Secretariat in Bori-Ogoni, Rivers State.
According to a press statement signed by Asst. General Secretary of MOSOP, Alex Akori, “the Central Committee held that exoneration of the 9 innocent Ogoni civil rights activists, including Ken Saro-Wiwa, who were executed by the Nigerian government on November 10, 1995 was fundamentally a major demand and expectation of the Ogoni people because the “9” were innocent and unjustly killed to pave way for the Shell Petroleum Development Company, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell Plc to return to oil drilling activities in Ogoni.”
It also said the Steering Committee resolved that previous oil spills in Ogoni should be properly cleaned up, condemning the present cleanup program which it described as compromised and used to enrich private individuals.
The MOSOP Central Committee further called for an open and honest engagement to discuss the future of the Ogoni people with a view to facilitating the resolution of the protracted Ogoni crisis.
“The Steering Committee further called for an end to the repression and frequent harassment of MOSOP activists by Nigerian security forces.
“The MOSOP Central Committee noted that the call by oppressed Ogoni people for equity and justice for the Ogoni whose resources had been taken away and their environment left in desolation does not amount to any crime in the land”, the statement read.
The MOSOP Central Committee listed these conditions as necessary to peacefully and amicably resolve the over 30 year-old conflict with Shell and the Nigerian government.