A Niger Delta activist, Rev. Dr. Sokari Soberekon, has advised the people of Ogoni to shun violence in their demand for environmental reparation
He spoke to journalists in his office in Port Harcourt recently.
Rev. Dr. Sokari Soberekon, who said· he was speaking in his capacity as a Senior Advocate of Niger Delta noted that although the Ogonis have suffered much injustice in their quest to protect their environment from pollution caused, by oil exploration of multinational companies, resorting to violence will not yield meaningful results.
He said: I commend them for agitating for cleanup but they should use non violence and non cooperation.
Unarmed old women can chase anyone out of Ogoni land with prayers. The. people are complaining of lack of water without which the Ogoni clean-up cannot be complete and oil production should not resume.
They should not involve’ the youths in the protest so that they will not over-react and create room for a dog to be given a bad name in order to be hung.
The government should not apply force on the Ogoni people or any other group agitating for resource control in the Niger Delta as any other massacre like Odi Massacre in Bayelsa State’ will attract the International Criminal. Court (ICC). and God’s anger. I advise other oil producing communities· in the Niger Delta to shun violence and continue to pray for justice.
“The government should know’ that injustice to one’, is injustice to all. The entire Rivers, Bayelsa and all the oil producing states are riot happy with what is happening in Ogoni.”