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The attention of National Union of Ogoni
Student’s, USA has been drawn to the recent
attack by the combined forces of the
Nigerian Joint Task Force and the Rivers
State Task Force on the people of Ogoni,
particularly the communities of Kpean, Bean,
and Gure, etc.
We wish to use this medium to draw the
attention of the good people of Nigeria and
the world to this fresh line of attack on
the innocent people of Ogoni by the River
State government. The people of Ogoni are
peace loving and have demonstrated this in
their nonviolent approach to their demands
which are yet to be met. The people whose
ONLY crime is the fact that they demand for
a fair share of their oil proceeds will
continue to resist all forms of oppression
with every civil means.
Therefore, we resolved as follows:
1.
We condemn the recent “Abacha styled” raid
on the communities of Kpean, Bean and Gure
by the Joint Task Force and the Rivers State
Task Force that have prevented them from
going about their normal daily activities,
overnight harassments as well as sporadic
occupation of the area, arrest, raping and
looting of properties by the joint security
task force must stop forthwith.
2.
We demand that the Rivers State Task force
should disable all check points in Ogoni
because they serve no useful purposes;
rather they are means of extorting money
from the people, motorist and non-motorist
alike, preventing the people of Ogoni from
going about their normal businesses just
like others in the state. There is also
strong indication that
the state security task
force is being used to spy on those
with opposing political views from that of
the authority so that they can crackdown on
them. This is inimical to a sound democratic
system.
3.
We also discovered that the Rivers State
government headed by Rt Hon Amaechi, NPDC,
Shell and the federal authority are making
another calculated attempt to start oil
production in Ogoni without meeting the
demands of the people as stated in the Ogoni
Bill of Rights (OBR). They planned to do
this through the use of the already
established security task forces (Abacha
style) coupled with some help from the
deceptive works of the UNEP.
We strongly advise the Rivers State
government to stop using the State security
task force to terrorize the people of Ogoni
in order to start oil production. He should
disband this notorious and terroristic
Police road blocks immediately from Ogoni
Land
4.
We abhor a repeat of state and corporate
sponsored violence that characterized the
1990s' which was used by the Nigerian
government as a pretext to kill prominent
Ogoni leaders and over 4000 Ogoni indigenes
for demanding their rights.
5.
Ogoni students viewed these secret attacks
by the River State Joint Task Force on the
communities of Kpean, Bean and Gure as a
sponsored activity by Shell Oil and the
authority to resume oil operations in Yorla
Oil Fields.
We shall be forced to take civilized
actions against Shell and all those behind
these constant threats to the peace of Ogoni.
Therefore, we call upon the chairman
of Khana local government to take immediate
actions by assessing the level of damage and
ensure that Shell/government propaganda does
not overshadow the truth. Ogoni people are
not going to be deterred by violent actions
of corrupt and irresponsible government and
corporations who over the years have failed
to deliver. We cannot give control of our
resources to a government that has chosen
violence over dialogue; a government that
cannot provide pure drinking water,
electricity, good roads, equipped schools,
good Health care system, etc even with huge
revenue from oil revenue, whereas, countries
with limited resources than Nigeria can do
all of these for their people.
Signed:
President, Pius B. Nwinee
Secretary, Sampson B. Npimnee
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