Ogoni may reject govt's report on UNEP implementation

ALLEGING neglect, the Ogoni people have expressed disappointment over the failure of the Federal Government to involve or consult them in the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report implementation.At a press briefing at in Port-Harcourt, the Ogoni expressed reservation on the recommendations made by the Committee set up by the Federal Government to effect the report.The spokesman of the Ogoni, Senator Magus Abe, representing Rivers South East Senatorial district argued that the report suffered a deficit of credibility because the Ogoni were not consulted.'They have finished their work and submitted the report. We are not accepting or rejecting it because we do not know what is in the document that has been submitted to the President, The Ogonis were not consulted so we are saying that the report suffers a deficit of credibility because we were not carried along', Abe stated.He added: 'If the report is good, we do not know, if it is bad, we do not know about it and we want the world to know that we do not know what has been submitted and what the government is planning to do; If tomorrow we see it and it is what we would have said, fine ; if we see it and there are things we do not like, we still reserve the right to say that we do not like this and we do not like that because nobody has asked us'He continued: 'You cannot deal with the whole nationality without talking to anybody, I don't know where that has been done before and I do not know where it has worked but it will not work in Ogoni'.He said despite pleading to the Federal Government to appoint an Ogoni indigene to act as a liaison in the committee to enable the people have a say in the report, the government bluntly disregarded their plea and did what it preferred.Apart from Abe, all Ogoni sons and daughters in top political positions were present at the briefing.Abe warned thattime was running out in fixing Ogoni land considering the section of the UNEP report that advised that if something was not done urgently, the area would no longer be habitable.The Senator while maintaining that the peoples' involvement at the implementation stage of the report was necessary, expressed fears that something meaningful would be achieved with the manner the government is handling the situation.
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