MOSOP Frustrates N20bn Investment In Ogoni –RSG

The Acting Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Rivers State, Mr Blessing Wikina, says the leadership of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) is involved in an uncanny wedlock aimed at misleading the Ogoni people, and driving away N20 billion investment from Ogoniland.

Mr Wikina said this yesterday while reacting to a statement from MOSOP, alleging that Governor Chibuike Amaechi has threatened the Ogoni people, over alleged opposition to its agricultural programmes in the area.

The Acting Chief Press Secretary, who is an Ogoni son, said it amounts to utter disregard for the Ogoni personalities, leaders of thought and institutions who were invited and attended the meeting, for MOSOP to say that Governor Amaechi had imposed sanctions against the people.

“It is on record that even without prompting, Governor Amaechi on assumption of office, directed an immediate face-lift of Bori, headquarters of Ogoniland and had constructed all the internal roads in the town, and embarked on other development projects in Ogoniland.. So, MOSOP cannot claim to love Ogoni people more than Governor Amaechi”, he said.

According to him, the proposed N5 billion Banana Plantation is to be located at an economic corridor between Sogho in Khana Local Government and Ueken in Tai Local Government Area, and in line with Ogoni tradition on land ownership, the land owners were consulted and communicated with at all levels.

Along the same axis, Governor Amaechi has also established the multi-billion Naira Rivers State Songhai Farms complex, which is bigger than the model farm in Benin Republic, from where it was copied.

Also planned for the same area, is a N10 billion Oil Palm Plantation, which would make Ogoni axis a robust agricultural economic corridor, hosting over N20 billion investment profiles cumulatively.

Mr Wikina said it was only the leadership of MOSOP in their characteristic manner, that would through propaganda, drive away such investment for a people, whose struggle over the years is for the development of their area, adding that other local government areas of Rivers State were making attractive overtures to Governor Amaechi to host the projects.

“It is also a fact that Ogoniland is hosting the first two to be completed of the new 24 secondary schools, planned for Rivers State, costing N3.5 billion each, at a time when Oil revenue is not coming from Ogoniland”, Mr Wikina said, adding, “Governor Amaechi is utilising proceeds from oil revenue accruing from other areas of Rivers State to develop Ogoniland”.

According to him, the bone of contention at the meeting was a breakdown of information within the host communities of the project, a situation which was discovered to have been deliberately misconstrued by MOSOP elements, so as to create disaffection among the ranks of the people.

“We are indeed not new to this antics of MOSOP; which has frustrated every effort to foster peace in Ogoniland as every development project that they do not derive profit from is opposed, while the ones that touch their pockets are allowed to thrive”.

Mr Wikina regretted that even though MOSOP in the past had always requested for an environmental study of the oil spills in Ogoniland from the United Nations, they were frustrating the process when eventually the UN Agency for Environmental Programme (UNEP) came calling, simply because the agency refused to allow them as contractors to the exercise”.

He called on the Ogoni people to close ranks in a bid to know the truth about what Governor Amaechi said at the meeting, saying, MOSOP are not fair to the people who attended the meeting, as they have always been economical with the truth.

“We need to watch the entire proceedings at the meeting because this is exactly what transpired in Ogoni in the 90s that people were made to lose their lives, he continued, while emphasizing that Governor Amaechi’s love for Ogoni people cannot be dismissed by MOSOP’s tasteless propaganda.

The Acting Chief Press Secretary, who said the state government plans to bring its Banana Plantation, funded by a foreign investor to Ogoniland, and has no clandestine plans to bring any military installation to the area, called on the Ogoni people to be weary of the antics of elements who have milked the fortunes of Ogoni people dry in the last couple of years without attracting any single development project to Ogoniland.

“Rest assured that the policies and programmes of the Amaechi administration is for every part of Rivers State, and not for a few, as erroneously portrayed by MOSOP”, he said, emphasizing that the Sogho people have resolved to welcome the project and to do otherwise will be against the wishes and aspiration of the people.

Journalists at the media centre of the 17th National Sports Festival in Port Harcourt yesterday. Inset, some athletes arriving the Games Village at University of Port Harcourt, Choba, yesterday.