Oil Resumption: MOSOP Decries Renewed Attacks on Ogoni Communities, One Killed
PORT HARCOURT — The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has condemned fresh attacks on Ogoni communities in Tai Local Government Area of Rivers State, which reportedly claimed the life of one person and forced residents to flee their homes.
According to MOSOP, villages including Gbaken, Ledor and surrounding communities have been deserted following repeated gun raids, particularly in Gbaken, where gunmen allegedly launched attacks from neighboring Afam.
In a statement signed by its Secretary-General, Alex Akori, on Wednesday in Port Harcourt, MOSOP criticized what it described as the federal government’s complacency despite repeated warnings about threats to Ogoni lives. The group urged President Bola Tinubu to urgently intervene to restore peace and protect lives and property in the affected areas.
“MOSOP regrets that at a time when dialogue is being proposed and hopes are high for a peaceful resolution of the protracted oil conflicts, Ogoni oil-producing villages in Tai are being subjected to massive attacks and killings, forcing people out of their homes,” the statement read.
The group linked the escalating violence to renewed government efforts to resume oil production in Ogoniland, accusing oil interests of sponsoring attacks to dispossess locals of their ancestral lands.
MOSOP further reminded authorities of their constitutional duty to safeguard Nigerians and called for immediate measures to end what it described as “sponsored, oil-related conflicts on the Ban-Ogoi axis of Ogoni.”
It also appealed for emergency humanitarian relief for displaced residents, particularly women, children and the elderly, who it said have become vulnerable after being rendered refugees in their own communities.
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