Chieftain of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Chief Emmanuel Nkala, has called on the Nigerian Government to resist the temptation of a military raid on Ogoni with the hope of killing civil rights protestors seeking justice for the Ogoni people in Nigeria.
Chief Emmanuel Nkala spoke in Gokana kingdom of Ogoni on Tuesday during a MOSOP congress held in Bera, Gokana local government area, Nkala who was reacting to some widely circulated rumours of a military raid under the guise of fighting insecurity said the plot was a clear pointer to suppress civil right agitations in Ogoni.
Agents of the Nigerian state and oil industry sponsored by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) have openly argued for forceful oil resumption in Ogoni. But Nkala said they have promoted just one agenda and that had been to suppress agitations for civil rights.
Nkala further noted that there had been no unusual security situation in Ogoni to warrant a military raid. He accused the Nigerian government of deliberately neglecting the Ogoni people to justify the campaign for a military intervention noting that what Ogoni needed is the creation of more Police units and equipping them to provide the needed security..
Chief Nkala regretted that Nigeria was encouraging criminality by failing to provide security especially for the Ogoni people. He stated that the federal and state governments should be concerned about the neglect of the Ogoni section of Rivers State noting that there had been nothing so exceptional about Ogoni apart from a deliberate government neglect to force the people to submit to the repressive tendencies, poverty and allow oil production in area against their wishes.
Chief Nkala further said the Ogoni people were peaceful and the reported cases of crime had been clearly linked to political sponsorship. He charged the Nigerian government to explain why no one had been charged to court despite the numerous arrests associated with a series of politically motivated clashes between gangsters..
Nkala reminded the Nigerian authorities that the Ogoni are an indigenous people and a distinct ethnic nationality in Nigeria and therefore are protected by international treaties and conventions to which the Nigerian State is a signatory and therefore bound by them. He stated that any military invasion in Ogoni will be a clear violation of the rights of the people to peaceful habitation of their land. The Ogoni people therefore must give their consent to any military operation in the land and should have a clear understanding of the purpose of the operations.
Nkala said the struggles of the Ogoni people had been to protect their fundamental rights and freedom, especially the rights to self determination within the Nigeria state. He called on the Nigerian Government to ensure that the Ogoni are aduately protected within Nigeria and warned against rolling out the Nigerian military against peaceful communities seeking to protect their fundamental rights and enhance their living conditions. Nkala said militarizing Ogoni especially for the purpose of forcing oil production in the area will not be acceptable and will run contrary to all known conventions and principles of a civilized society.
He therefore urged the Nigerian government to halt any action that could further worsen the already terrible conditions in which the Ogoni people live.
