MOSOP President, Legborsi Pyagbara

As the spate of killings and orgy violence continues across Ogoniland, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has condemned the trend and called on security agencies to act fast to halt the wanton killings and bring to justice those behind the dastardly acts.

Reports coming from the area indicate that several people were killed between Friday, May 17 and Sunday, May 19, 2019, in Bori and in Kono Bo-ue, all in Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State.

MOSOP, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Sunny Zorvah, expressed surprise that these killings were occurring days after what it thought was a successful strategic multi-stakeholders meeting at the instance of the Khana Local Government authorities.

It described the incidents as “disheartening”, stating that something more drastic needs to be done with utmost sincerity and commitment of all categories of leaders and security personnel in order to arrest the escalating state of insecurity in Ogoniland.

“This killing is one too many and it’s quite sad and unfortunate that situations like these are allowed to continue in our communities without the arrest and prosecution of perpetrators, both the criminals and sponsors of the unjustifiable massacre of innocent citizens”.

“Reports have it that unidentified gun men, on Friday invaded part of Bori Town, shooting sporadically and killed one person while on Sunday about 20 persons were reportedly shot dead in Kono Bo-ue community.”

“How can one explain the reason for the killing of about 20 innocent natives in a community that is not at war with her neighbours and does not have report of intra communal conflict at time of the incident?”

MOSOP appealed to the Federal and Rivers State governments to carry out the fight against gang wars and criminality with demonstrable vigour and utmost priority and to decisively, with no exceptions, bring to book culprits to avert further incidents.

“While we call on the people of the area to remain law-abiding, we urge the community and traditional leaders to work with the security agencies to initiate actions that would expose those behind the insecurity situation and bring back lasting peace and normalcy to the various communities.”

“On our part, we would continue our peace programme, in partnership with relevant authorities, particularly the churches, security experts and Paramount Rulers in the area, hoping for positive outcome in the coming days”.

The foremost Ogoni pressure group sympathized with the people of Kono Bo-ue community, particularly, families of the victims, and called on the youths and community leaders to cooperate with security agencies in their quest to restore peace in the community.