The Ogoni Liberation Initiative (OLI), a pressure group in Ogoni land, Rivers State, has demanded accountability over an alleged $300 million compensation fund reportedly released by the Federal Government for the development and welfare of the Ogoni people.
The compensation fund has been a subject of intense public debate for a few years now, with sections of the Ogoni community alleging that the money was misappropriated through certain politicians, including a former governor of Rivers State.
The group insisted that those responsible for the alleged diversion of the funds must be held accountable.
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The demand was made on Saturday during a peaceful protest in Bori, the headquarters of Khana Local Government Area and the traditional headquarters of the Ogoni people.
The protest was led by the group’s leader, Douglas Fabeke, who addressed journalists at the protest ground.
Fabeke said decades of appeals to the government had failed to ease the suffering of the Ogoni people, noting that the protest marks the beginning of a new strategic effort to project their demands beyond Nigeria if necessary.
The group also called for an immediate end to what it described as illegal oil exploration in parts of the area.
Members of the group, including elderly men and women, carried placards with inscriptions calling for transparency, justice, and an end to alleged illegal oil extraction activities in Lekuma communities in Tai Local Government Area.
Some of the placards specifically demand an immediate halt to oil operations allegedly being carried out by an indigenous oil company in the community.
He said the protest was aimed at drawing national attention to the unresolved plight of 17 Lekuma Ogoni communities that were destroyed between 1993 and 1998 during the military regime of late General Sani Abacha.
He alleged that more than 300 people lost their lives during the period, while thousands were displaced, many of whom are still living as refugees in different African countries, with others remaining homeless within Nigeria.
He expressed concern over what he described as renewed oil-related activities in the affected communities despite the absence of full environmental remediation and community restoration.
According to Fabeke, the alleged resumption of such activities poses serious environmental, health, and safety risks to the local population.
During the protest, the group rejected the involvement of any private oil company in Ogoni land, insisting that only the Federal Government, through the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), should be allowed to operate in the area. They declared any private operator persona non grata in Ogoni communities.
He also demanded that the Federal Government take direct control of Oil Mining Lease (OML) 11, stressing that this should only occur after genuine, inclusive, and result-oriented dialogue with the Ogoni people.
He further warned on behalf of the protesters that failure by the Federal Government to intervene would compel them to escalate their actions to the Federal Capital Territory and to foreign embassies in order to draw international attention to the situation in Ogoni land.
The Ogoni Liberation Initiative also issued a 14-day ultimatum to any company operating in the Lekuma Ogoni communities to stop work and remove all equipment from the affected areas.
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