The Movement for Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) has applauded the judgment of Federal High Court, Abuja against the Shell Petroleum Company Development Company, saying it has opened a window of hope and relief for Ogoni whose lives have turned miserable.
Besides, the group said that the verdict reaffirmed Ogoni people’s claims of environmental devastation following years of “irresponsible business practices” by Shell in Ogoniland, during which people died as a result of repression.
MOSOP President, Fegalo Nsuke, in a statement, expressed regrets that despite scientific and factual evidence against Shell, the Federal Government has not considered a penalty for the multinational company and others.
“We are deeply pained that our enormous contributions and capacity to contribute to the Nigerian economy, in excess of N20 billion daily resources extracted from Ogoniland, are being deployed for the development of regions.”
“We note strongly that notwithstanding the reliefs brought by judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja, the people desire to see some restitution initiated by the Federal Government and Shell especially the decriminalisation of the nine Ogoni hanged by the military dictatorship on November 10, 1995,” Nsuke said.
He, therefore, called for an overhaul of the so-called Ogoni cleanup project to make it more transparent, credible; requesting for a probe into the finances of its management following “obvious criminality and financial recklessness associated with the programme”.
“MOSOP wants an end to the use of repression to forcefully resume oil production in Ogoni and urges the Federal Government to refrain from further acts that will endanger the lives of the Ogoni people thereby provoking civil protests.
We are calling for dialogue as a way to resolve all legacy issues surrounding the Ogoni conflicts and hope that the government will adopt the proposals put forward by MOSOP as the pathway to peacefully resolve the Ogoni issues,” the statement further read.
