Leaders of Odi community in Bayelsa State yesterday came down hard on former President Olusegun Obasanjo over his recent comments on the shooting of #EndSARS protesters by the military at Lekki toll gate in Lagos.
The community leaders, under the aegis of Concerned Citizens of Odi berated Obasanjo, saying that the former leader lacks the moral right to speak on the activities of a military invasion.
At the wake of the military invasion on the #EndSARS protesters on Tuesday night in Lekki, Obasanjo frowned at the attack and berated the government for deploying maximum force at the peaceful protesters. The community leaders however in a statement in Abuja sadly recalled the Odi massacre carried out on November 20, 1999, by the Nigerian military on the predominantly Ijaw town of Odi in Bayelsa State over the indigenous rights to oil resources and environmental protection.
The signatories to the statement, which include deputy King of Odi, Chief Prenus Ogboin, the Youth President, Ikposuoyeski Inemike and CDC Chairman, Odi, Goddey Niweigha, the community’s women leader; Ebimoweni Kemepade, among others, demanded an unreserved apology from the former president.
Part of the statement read: “The trauma that Odi went through under President Obasanjo is still fresh in living memory.
“The Nigerian Army moved in tanks, the Nigerian Navy moved in warships and the Nigerian Air Force was overhead. All the forces of the Nigerian federation were unleashed on the sleepy and unarmed rural community of Odi because some young people dared to ask for their rights. It was a time no one in Odi wishes to recall. Definitely, there are some lectures that ‘Professor’ Obasanjo may not be qualified to deliver, especially a lecture on how to disperse a peaceful protest without violence.’’
The group stated that Obasanjo owes the people of Odi an unreserved apology, adding that his recent comments are like adding salt to injury on their people.