15th January, 2014
Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
Less than 24 hours after the Ogoni Leaders of Thought, under the canopy of Kagote, condemned the alleged assassination attempt on Senator Magnus Abe on Sunday January 12, and called for the redeployment of the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mbu Joseph Mbu, some youths alleged to be from Ogoniland took to the streets today.
Said to be supporters of the Grassroots Development Initiative, GDI and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the youths stages protests in Bori which doubles as the Headquarters of the Ogoni Ethnic Nationality and Rivers South-East Senatorial District.
The youths said they came out in demonstration against what they called the deceit and distortion of facts in the Sunday, January 12, incident in Port Harcourt, during which Senator Magnus Abe was said to have been shot by the Police.
Curiously, they praised Mbu for a job well done.
The protesters, claimed they represent Ogoni Youth Movement, and Federation of Ogoni Youth Leaders Association and drew membership from the various communities of the four Local Government Areas of Eleme, Gokana, Khana, and Tai.
The protest march commenced from the Senatorial District office of Senator Abe, on Hospital Road in Bori. The the protesters snaked through major streets in the metropolitan city with a brief stopover at the main Park and Market junctions, and later ended their procession at the Police Area Command, Bori.
They appeared to have gotten plenty of listening ears at the command.
Some of the placards carried by the protesters had the inscription, “Abe is a Liar,” Magnus Abe was not shot by the Police,” “Ogoni for Goodluck Jonathan,” “Ogoni youths are in support of the Police,” “APC has no place in Ogoni,” “Magnus, show evidence of gun shots,” “Ogoni youths, Elders say Mbu must stay,” “Amaechi and Abe are collaborators in crime and lies,” “Ogonis are for Wike, PDP,” etc.
In speeches at the Police Area Command in Bori, the Youth Leaders who led the procession called on the police, particularly the Commissioner of Police, Mbu Joseph Mbu, not to be swayed by what he described as the lies and blackmail of Senator Abe and Governor Amaechi, assuring men and officers of the Police Force of the Ogoni people’s support and confidence.
Mr. Sunny Bekanwa, National President, Ogoni Youth Movement, challenged Senator Magnus Abe to show to the World the wound sustained from the gun shot by the police, wondering why a whole Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will so demean himself to the extent of lying that he was shot at an event where no sound of gunshot was heard, apart from the ‘canister of teargas’ used by the police to quell an already building up confrontation in the area.
A statement by the Rivers Voice South-East Senatorial district coordinator, Emma Osaro, urged the people to ignore the few individuals involved in the demonstration arranged by leaders of PDP, insisting that the move was a continuation of the wickedness against Ogoni people.
Osaro criticized PDP for wanting Senator Abe dead, because of his consistent voice against the non-implementation of the UNEP report and plans to dump the Party for APC, as if Ogonis who had died as a result of polluted water and eco-system, aptly captured by UNEP were not enough.
Osaro berated some Ogoni leaders for jubilating at the shooting of their kinsman stressing that every Ogoni man should be concerned about what happened to Senator Abe despite ideological differences and political affiliation.
“I am not surprised that the Police protected the demonstrators as against those that protested the shooting of Senator Abe; we lost Ken Saro-Wiwa to the Federal Government, now they want to kill our dependable Senator and son. We will resist it,” Osaro declared.