The President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Chief Legborsi Pyagbara, has kicked against the Federal Government’s plan to build a maximum security prison and modern cemetery in Ogoniland.
He alleged that the plan had been concluded by the Federal Ministry of Interior and would involve seizure of over forty-one hectares of land in Bori, the traditional headquarters of Ogoniland where he said arable land had been conspicuously difficult to find.
Pyagbara declared Ogoni people in the four Local Government Areas of Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme of Rivers State in the Niger Delta would resist with the last drop of their blood the plan to build a maximum security prison and modern cemetery in peaceful Ogoniland.
He spoke yesterday in Port Harcourt, urging the federal government to jettison the plan at a time clean-up of the polluted Ogoni environment had not been done despite presentation of the report of the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP’s) on the environmental assessment of Ogoniland to the then President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja on August 4, 2011.
He lamented the project had not kicked off despite promises by President Muhammadu Buhari to fully implement the far-reaching recommendations.
Pyagbara said: “ Ogoni people are opposed to this plan being hatched by the Federal Government against the Ogoni people.
“This action is a demonstration of crass insensitivity and a total disdain for the Ogoni people by the Buhari-led administration.
“We want to stress that this plan to build a maximum security prison facility and modern cemetery in Ogoni will never be acceptable to our people because we see this as a broader attempt to suppress Ogoni people and forcefully begin oil and gas exploration in the area, without any constructive engagement and discussion with the Ogoni people.”
The MOSOP president insisted what Ogoni people wants from the federal government is appropriate/fast-paced clean-up and restoration of Ogoniland, not the building of maximum security prison facility.
