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Ogoni people at the Peace and Freedom Centre in Bori, Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State on Saturday for Oil exploration resumption talks. Photo Credit: Dennis Naku
There was tension in Bori, the traditional headquarters of Ogoni land on Saturday, as a planned congress to begin talks on the planned oil exploration resumption in the area ended abruptly.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu at a meeting with some Ogoni leaders in Abuja over a fortnight ago had urged them to return home to get the input of their people on the planned oil resumption in the area and come back to him.
The meeting scheduled to be held at the Peace and Freedom Centre in Bori, Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State saw an unexpected crowd of the Ogoni people from the four local government areas that make up Ogoni land, viz Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme.
Our correspondent who was at the venue reports that before the agreed time of 1 pm, the hall was filled to the brim while hundreds of other Ogoni people were outside, forcing the organisers to move outside the open field.
Yet the crowd swelled even as political leaders of the area including the Senator representing the Rivers South-East, Barry Mpigo, the Deputy National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Chief Victor Giadom, former President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, Ledum Mitee arrived the venue.
As the venue became tighter, the Co-Chairman of the Ogoni Dialogue Committee and respected priest, Ignatius Kattey and Mitee quickly took turns to address the crowd on the purpose of the meeting as directed by Tinubu.
Mpigo, while giving the vote of thanks urged the Ogoni people to unite, remain peaceful and put the past behind them.
Though the event scheduled for 1 pm started around 2:pm, in less than an hour the event was over as the VIPs jumped into their vehicles and zoomed off, as the youths became angry over the arrangement which was poorly organised.
Immediately, tempers started flaring and some youths displayed placards with several inscriptions calling for transparency in the ongoing talks.
One of the youths from Khana who gave his name as Emma said, “How can they call Ogoni people from four LGAs for the first meeting to one small place and expect to achieve results? It is not possible because many people will want to speak.
“The best thing they would have done is to begin the discussion from the kingdoms or the LGAs before calling an enlarged congress to harmonise the views”, he concluded.
Details later…
