The Kingdom Coordinators Forum of The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has described as misleading and mischievous, the statement credited to one Comrade Tom Douglas of the Ijaw Justice Forum (IJF) alleging that some Ogoni personalities including Dr Fred Kpakol, Jerry Needam and Ejoor Ngowah Ejoor are among persons he perceived were working against the implementation of the Ogoni UNEP report.
Reacting to the statement, the MOSOP Coordinators Forum said it was unfortunate that Tom Douglas will allow himself to be used in misleading the general public on a subject he is ignorant of.
In the statement, Frank Jonah, chairman of the MOSOP Kingdom Coordinators Forum said every Ogoni wants the UNEP report to be implemented. He noted that the departure point has been some who see
business in the report implementation and those who want a transparent process and question the capacity of HYPREP to conduct a credible cleanup in Ogoni.
While some persons believe funds should be released immediately to kick start the process, we, representing the grassroots, local people resident in Ogoni villages and communities believe the cleanup is urgently needed but the process must be transparent and achieve the desired results for our people.
The statement continued: "The MOSOP Kingdom Coordinators Forum is unwavering on our earlier allegation against the government of Rivers State and the HYPREP leadership whose alliance we believe threatens the transparent implementation of the Ogoni UNEP report. Based on a report available to us indicating compromises by the Rivers State Government regarding huge contracts which has been awarded to persons within the HYPREP and the failure of government to hold the defaulters accountable, we believe that HYPREP will be a colossal failure as the same compromise between the Rivers State Government and HYPREP leadership could channel Ogoni cleanup funds into political party activities ahead of the 2015 elections."
The MOSOP Coordinators statement further said: We have seen the attention drawn to the Ogoni UNEP report and appreciate the concern of everyone. However, we cannot but insist on a credible and transparent
process knowing the history of Shell as a deceptive company who cannot be trusted and knowing that without close monitoring the process will end up a sham. We note that Shell has previously denied any pollution of Ogoniland claiming that all spills had been cleaned.
The lies and intrigues surrounding the implementation of the Ogoni report are such that we must carefully monitor the situation to ensure that Ogoni is not shortchanged.
We regret to say that the real problems to the implementation of the UNEP report are not the people Comrade Douglas is pointing accusing fingers at, rather, they are those who do not want to be realistic
about the situation, those within Ogoni who see the UNEP as business and an opportunity to make huge financial benefits, those who have no knowledge of cleanup exercises but have incorporated companies that
will undertake Ogoni cleanup. They are the reasons we have called for a transparent process and we urge the federal government to expedite action in putting up a more credible organization as recommended by
UNEP to build confidence in our people which is a fundamental requirement for the success of the cleanup programme.
UNEP report implementation is our life. We insist that it must be done thoroughly and credibly and we cannot compromise our stand on this issue.
Signed: Letom Sinen
Media Assistant to Frank Jonah,
Chairman MOSOP Kingdom Coordinators Forum
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