UNEP Report: ‘Jonathan Disappointed Ogoni People’. A former chairman of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People’s provisional council, Prof. Ben Naanen, has said Ogoni people are disappointed with President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration for failing to act on the United Nations Environmental Programme report on Ogoniland, two years after it was published. The UNEP report on Ogoniland, which was released on August 4, 2011, showed several evidences of ecological disaster, resulting from oil production in the area. It also showed oil pollution in surface and ground water, contaminating all sources of drinking water in Ogoniland, with attendant health risks. Naanen told SUNDAY PUNCH that the Federal Government needed to respond urgently to forestall crisis in the region. He said, “The Federal Government has to do something about this situation urgently. Two years after the report was released, absolutely nothing has happened. We are disappointed about the fact that the Federal Government has been doing absolutely nothing about all the recommendations of the UNEP on Ogoni. “And for a government that is led by President Goodluck Jonathan, who is from the Niger-Delta, we are really disappointed. We are disappointed with the present government. If it were somewhere else, they would have scurried to implement that report a long time ago.” Naanen added that Ogoni should not be blamed for whatever measure taken in response to the Federal Government’s refusal to implement the recommendations of the UNEP report. “Maybe because it is an Ogoni affair, Jonathan is not saying anything about it and the Federal Government is not doing anything about it. So, whatever the Ogoni decide to do, nobody should blame them. “We don’t subscribe to violence but some actions have to be taken to express Ogoni people’s rejection of the Federal Government’s position on the UNEP report on Ogoni. We support any lawful measures not violence,” Naanen said. Last Saturday, Ogoni people said they would begin a non-violent mass action after a 30-day ultimatum, if the Federal Government failed to start the implementation of the UNEP’s recommendations for the restoration of Ogoniland. Their demands were issued in an eight-point communiqué at the Peace and Freedom Centre, Bori, Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, by a prominent Ogoni leader and Chairman of the Niger Delta Technical Committee, Mr. Ledum Mitee, after a special Ogoni congress. The congress, SUNDAY PUNCH learnt, was attended by 5,000 delegates.
Posted on: Sun, 18 Aug 2013 13:34:32 +0000
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