Following the attack of an Ogoni activist, Stephen Deegbara by suspected hoodlums said to be loyal to the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) at Mogho community in Gokana Local Government Area in Rivers State, the Ogoni Youth Federation, OYF, has accused HYPREP of employing divide-and-rule tactics to divide the people.
The group said same tactics was the hallmark of the Shell Petroleum Development Company in Ogoniland to suppress, oppress and split Ogoni people against each other, as well as brutalizing Ogoni people.
The group in a statement by its president, Legborsi Yaamaabana said, ‘You will recall that during the House of Representatives Committee on Environment fact finding visit to HYPREP cleanup sites at Mogho in Gokana Local Government Area to ascertain the level of the Ogoni cleanup exercise, the assaulted youth activist, Stephen Deegbara had gone with some Ogoni youths who are not happy with the way HYPREP under Marvin Dekil has compromised the implementation of the UNEP report, to peacefully express their dissatisfaction but immediately Dr. Marvin Dekil sighted him, he ordered that he should be beaten and thrown out of the venue’.
‘Though the draconian and oppressive attitude of the managers of the cleanup project, especially Marvin Dekil are not strange to OYF, as the said Dekil had on the 29th December, 2018 ordered his security details to brutally assault the President General of OYF, Comrade Yamaabana Legborsi. The Managers of HYPREP will do anything, including killing to cover up the massive corruption and financial recklessness going on in HYPREP’.
OYF further stated that: ‘it is worrisome that while Ogoni communities are yet to recover fully from the crisis that erupted Ogoni recently, and are still battling with the hazards that the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) caused and the inability of HYPREP to quickly remediate and restore the already over-polluted environment in consonance with the recommendations of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), HYPREP is planning to increase the woes of the people’.
“We have alerted the Ogoni people, to brace up for perilous times ahead. We are certain that this travesty as well will dissolve into nothingness as the Ogoni people will non-violently and peacefully resist, with the last drop of our blood, this brazen, insolent and despotic attempt to balkanise Ogoniland and treat it as a conquered territory”.
“ In times like these, we call to mind the immortal words of our sage and hero, Ken Saro Wiwa, when he said: “we call upon the Ogoni people, the peoples of the Niger delta, and the oppressed ethnic minorities of Nigeria to stand up now and fight fearlessly and peacefully for their rights. History is on their side. God is on their side. For the Holy Quran says in Sura 42, verse 41: ‘All those that fight when oppressed incur no guilt, but Allah shall punish the oppressor, come the day.”
“For us in the OYF, we urge all true sons and daughters of Ogoniland to remain unwavering and resolute in their commitment to fight for their right”.
