Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has condemned some chiefs of Ogoni extraction who met with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the State House in Abuja, claiming that they are representatives of the Ogoni people.
The group also stated that the visit to Presidency was a slight on the Ogoni people in particular, and a denigration of the struggles of the Niger Delta region, condemning the misrepresentation and unequivocally dissociating itself from the meeting.
MOSOP President, Fegalo Nsuke, in a statement, said the meeting was facilitated by key players in the oil and gas industry in collaboration with some pro-government chiefs of Ogoni communities.
Nsuke alleged that the meeting was motivated by greed and aimed at misrepresenting the situation on the ground to Mr. President, whom he described as “a listening president who has shown remarkable commitment in finding a lasting solution to the critical Ogoni issues.
“We want to emphatically state that these are people without any knowledge about how Shell left Ogoni, or what drives our struggle. They are completely ignorant of the efforts made by the group to sensitize the people on the need to revisit the oil production issue.”
“As a critical interest group, our position should be taken into consideration on issues of Ogoni oil to achieve a mutually beneficial agreement in the interest of all parties. The misrepresenting facts on an issue like oil resumption in Ogoni is an act of economic sabotage.”
He called on the Federal Government not to allow a few selfish business people to flagrantly jettison their collective gains and urged the Presidency to initiate a broad-based negotiation to facilitate a peaceful settlement and reach an acceptable compromise.
“Our main objective is to resolve the protracted conflict and to bring Ogoni on the path of growth and development. But we insist on a transparent give and take process that will consider the interest of all parties for a mutually beneficial compromise.”
