MOSOP opposes Shell road project

The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has condemned recent attempts by Shell to build a road in central Ogoni, the civil rights body said on Monday.

“MOSOP is outraged that what has been presented as a community project has been used in a manner which has nearly divided local communities and ... has been pursued with the use of mobile police, armed thugs and bribery in manner which Shell has always claimed is not part of their new approach,” Ledum Mitee, MOSOP’s president in southeastern city of Port Harcourt, said.

In MOSAP’s statement, Mitee described as inaccurate recent media reports that MOSOP had agreed to Shell’s return to Ogoniland.

“On the contrary, recent actions by Shell have marked a leap backwards in our relations, as we believe Shell has breached basic principles for establishing dialogue on a number of occasions,” Mittee said.

MOSOP says it has “repeatedly warned” that local people in the villages must first be consulted before projects can proceed. This consultation on building the road had not taken place, MOSAP said, “and local people have protested, and been injured by contract security who clearly have no interest in the welfare of the local communities.”

Shell Lagos could not be immediately reached for comment.

Mosop has mounted a strong campaign against Shell’s alleged pollution of the lands of 500,000 Ogonis in the oil-rich Niger Delta. Shell suspended its operations in Ogoni after the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight fellow Ogoni activists were executed in November 1995.