Plans For Ogoni Self-Rule …MOSOP Disowns Diigbo

The Movement for the survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), says Dr Goodluck Diigbo, the former factional leader of the group acted on his own over the purported declaration of self-rule for the Ogonis.

The acting President of the movement , Prof Ben Naanen, who said this in a telephone interview with The Tide yesterday in Port Harcourt, said that the movement was not aware of any sovereignty for the Ogonis.

“You press people are building mountain out of a molehill. Nobody is bothered about sovereignty. Ogoni people are going about their normal businesses as proud indigenes of Rivers State, and citizens of Nigeria”, he said.

Prof Naanen said that MOSOP was yet to be informed of the  intention of Diigbo’s action, pointing out that the leadership of the movement and the entire Ogoni people were not sure that Diigbo is talking of sovereignty.

“We are not sure that Diigbo is talking about sovereignty. If he is talking of self-rule within the context of true federalism, then it is understood. But if he is talking about sovereignty, then he is on his own”, he said.

The MOSOP president, however, stressed the need for the government to put in place processes that would lead to improvement of economic condition of Ogoni people to forestall the idea of self rule.

He also expressed the hope that the government would initiate and implement programmes that would improve the fortunes of Ogonis within the context of a united Nigeria.

Efforts to get the legal implication of the declaration were unsuccessful as legal practitioners approached to comment on the issue declined.

But  the Rivers State Government , in a swift reaction at the weekend, said Diigbo’s declaration of self rule for the Ogonis amounted to treasonable felony.

The state Governor, Rt Hon Chibuike Amaechi, who waved off Diigbo’s action as treason, said that the self-acclaimed purveyor of sovereignty for Ogoni people would run into hiding if security operatives came after him for clarifications on the potency of his declaration.

L-R: President, Eastern Nigeria Union Mission, Pastor Bassey Udoh, Associate Women’s Director, Mrs Raquel Arrais and President, North-West, Pastor Oyeleke Owolabi, at the 2012 Convention of Adventist Women’s Ministries in Nigeria, in Irebe, Rivers State, yesterday.