Ogoni to sue govt over Oputa Panel report
From Kelvin Ebiri, Port Harcourt
HAVING waited in vain for the Federal Government to release the report of Human Rights Violation and Investigation Commission, the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) is set to take its case to the courts.
The Ogoni had filed in 8,500 of the 10,000 petitions received by the commission, headed by Justice Chukwudifu Oputa. MOSOP said it had directed its lawyers to begin legal proceedings against the government in its bid to ensure the release of the report.
Other means of pressure to be exerted on the government may include the boycott of the recent truce process initiated by President Olusegun Obasanjo to resolve the dispute between the Ogoni and Shell Petroleum Development Company.
In reaction to a claim by the Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Akinlolu Olujinmi (SAN) that government would comply with the Supreme Court
Judgment, which annulled the probe panel on the grounds of unconstitutionality, the President of MOSOP, Ledum Mitee described this as unfortunate, as the judgment referred to was not binding on everyone.
Mitee told The Guardian yesterday that government had defraudded the people. According to him, it appears thus that in an attempt to find time to get legitimacy after which it intended to abandon the people, "the government had set up the Oputa panel".
All that could be inferred from the government's stance, he noted, was that the government does not want to disturb some influential persons. He added that this
"preposterous stance" was at the detriment of those who filed in their petitions to protest against the violation of their fundamental rights.
Stressing why it was imperative for government to consider it a moral obligation it owed Nigerians to release the report, Mitee noted that it was not the question of what the report said that mattered most but the opportunity for those who have violated the rights of others to apologise.
This, according to him, is necessary for the reconciliation and healing process to be effective.
"Some people went there not because they expected that they are going to get anything, but at least that they had an opportunity that someone will come up to say I am sorry. It's not what someone gets that heals the wound but the fact that someone says 'I was wrong.' That is how to heal the wounds of the past. Sometimes you need to freshen the wounds so that it heals fast," he said.
He explained that the Ogoni who filed in over 85 per cent of the petitions, had received the Minister's announcement with dismay. He noted that this may affect the truce which the Federal Government was trying to broker between the people and Shell, which led to the stoppage of oil and gas exploration in the region in 1993.
According to him, the Ogoni people are bound to view the government's move with suspicion. The general assumption he said, was that the government might be embarking on yet another fruitless effort designed to waste their time.
"Our people put in 85 per cent of the petitions country wide and this was an area where there was genocide, where there was a systematic human rights abuse and as
a result the Ogoni came in their thousands to file 8,500 petitions out of 10,000 and then you now find that all that exercise is thrown to the drain, definitely the people will be devastated," he said.
Mitee said the government's action as far as the Oputa panel report was concern, was bound to turn back the clock in terms of achieving reconciliation. He stated that the peoples' confidence in government had been undermined.
