FORMER PRESIDENT OF MOSOP: “OGONI DEMANDING AUTONOMY, NOT SECESSION”

Legborsi Saro Pyagbara, former president of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), stated that what the people of Ogoni ethnic nationality in Rivers State want from the federal government is autonomy, not secession from the country.

Pyagbara, who made the announcement yesterday while speaking to journalists in Port Harcourt, the state capital, as part of festivities commemorating the 30th anniversary of Ogoni Day, said the demand was consistent with the terms of the Ogoni Bill of Rights.

He recommended the federal government to use the 2022 Ogoni Day celebration to engage the people of the ethnic nationality on the Ogoni question stated in the Bill of Rights.

Legborsi Saro Pyagbara, former president of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), stated that what the people of Ogoni ethnic nationality in Rivers State want from the federal government is autonomy, not secession from the country.

Pyagbara, who made the announcement yesterday while speaking to journalists in Port Harcourt, the state capital, as part of festivities commemorating the 30th anniversary of Ogoni Day, said the demand was consistent with the terms of the Ogoni Bill of Rights.

He recommended the federal government to use the 2022 Ogoni Day celebration to engage the people of the ethnic nationality on the Ogoni question stated in the Bill of Rights.

“It will be wonderful if the government of Nigeria will use the period of this year’s Ogoni Day celebration to convene Ogoni people for a discourse. We urge the federal government to engage in dialogue with Ogoni people about the Ogoni issue addressed by the Ogoni Bill of Rights.

“What are the fundamental questions? We’re talking about giving the Ogoni people autonomy within a federal Nigeria. The Ogoni people have never declared their intention to secede from Nigeria because the Ogoni Bill of Rights states that ‘although we express our confidence in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, we make the following requests as follows’.

“So that is a preamble phrase in the Ogoni Bill of Rights and that does not in any way promote independence. “Anyone who says we want to split from Nigeria is simply misinterpreting the Ogoni Bill of Rights,” he explained.