Mosop demands Rivers 2015 gov seat

JULY 2, 2013 

Rivers State Governor Mr. Rotimi Amaechi and factional leader, MOSOP, Dr. Goodluck Diigbo

THE Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People has declared that it will not accept anything less than the governorship position of Rivers State in 2015.

The movement also decried the continued marginalisation of Ogoni, which it said had cost its people fair representation at the national and state levels.

The movement’s position was contained in a communiqué issued on Monday in Port Harcourt.

Members of the movement had their national congress in Bori- Khana Local Government, where they unveiled the ‘Ogoni 2015 Project’ aimed at ensuring that an Ogoni person occupies the number one  seat in the state.

The communiqué by MOSOP President, Mr. Legborsi Pyagbara, called on political parties in the country to provide an opportunity for an Ogoni person to become the governor of the state in 2015.

It read, “The congress decried the marginalisation of Ogoni resulting in our denial of fair representation at the national and state levels.

“The marginalisation has regrettably deprived our berth at the highest level of government in Rivers State. Congress resolved that in 2015, Ogoni will accept nothing less than the position of the governor of Rivers State.

“It therefore called on all political parties in Nigeria to provide that opportunity for Ogoni aspirants to become candidates for the office of the Governor of Rivers State as Nigeria did for the Yoruba nation in 1999, occasioning the emergence of former President Olusegun Obasanjo as President of Nigeria.”

MOSOP, however, condemned the comments credited to the Rivers State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Felix Obuah, jettisoning the zoning of the governorship position in the state among the three senatorial districts.

The movement recalled that the zoning arrangement had produced Dr. Peter Odili (Rivers South West); Mr. Celestine Omehia and Mr. Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers East), adding that the next senatorial district (Rivers South East) had not benefitted from the arrangement.