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MOSOP, INC oppose Gambari's headship of Niger Delta summit
MAJOR stakeholders, notably the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) and the Ijaw National Congress (INC) have kicked against the appointment of United Nations (UN) Under-Secretary General, Ibrahim Gambari, as chairman of the steering committee on the Niger Delta.
MOSOP's Information Officer, Mr. Bari-ara Kpalap, expressing reservations over the Federal Government's decision to appoint Gambari as chairman of the steering committee, recalled that the latter was Nigeria's Permanent Representative at the UN when Ken Saro-Wiwa and other Ogoni were killed by the late Gen. Sani Abacha's regime and there was no record to show that he opposed the dastardly act.
Kpalap told The Guardian that Gambari's failure to condemn the actions of the Abacha military regime and other subsequent governments was a clear indication that he had a vested interest in the matter, hence could not be trusted by the people of the Niger Delta.
He said: When Ken Saro-Wiwa and the rest of the Niger Deltans were murdered as a result of their struggle for justice, Gambari was in the United Nations. We never heard him make any useful contribution towards the peaceful resolution of the Niger Delta conflict.
"Personally I wonder what will be the outcome of the appointment of a man who appears to have a vested interest. Worse still, he is someone who is uncomfortable with the agitation in the Niger Delta."
The MOSOP spokesman explained that agitation in the Niger Delta would continue until the government took more practical and sincere steps to genuinely address the problems of the area.
Kpalap, who noted that the crisis had been compounded over the years, said a mere Niger Delta Summit as proposed by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua would not proffer solutions to the conflict.
He called for direct United Nations involvement through a third party who does not have any form of vested interest in the issue.
He noted that the appointment of any person from any of the majority ethnic groups in Nigeria would continue to fuel the suspicion that government was not serious about a quick and sincere resolution of the Niger Delta crisis.
Similarly, President of the INC, Prof. Kimse Okoko, has reiterated the Ijaws' call for the UN to appoint a neutral party to intervene in the Niger Delta conflict.
Okoko told The Guardian yesterday that the people of the Niger Delta would not welcome a Nigerian chairing the steering committee on the Niger Delta under any guise.
According to him, this would not be in the best interest of the people of the Niger Delta.
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