Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, and chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Professor Chidi Odinkalu, have challenged the federal government on the implementation of the environmental assessment report of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on Ogoniland.
The duo gave the challenge yesterday in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital during their separate speeches at the 2012 Annual Town Hall Meeting of the National Association of Seadogs (NAS), with the theme, “The United Nations Environmental Assessment Report on Ogoniland: Issues and Responsibilities.’’
Soyinka, who was represented by Dr. Kombo Braide, said the crime against the people of the Niger Delta region was being executed by oil and gas companies operating in the region, backed by corrupt regimes that had held sway at the critical point of intersection between exploitation and the resource environment.
He said, “After all, the crime against the people of the Delta was made possible only through a pattern of collaboration that took place over the heads of the indigenous people, collaboration between exploiting petroleum companies, backed by corrupt regimes that held sway at the critical point of intersection between exploitation and resource environment.
“It was a simple policy of a collaboration of mutual interests, borne of both external and internal cultures of alienation.