Posted by By HENRY CHUKWURAH, Port Harcourt on
It's a case of the absurd as the police in Abuja invited the dead scribe of the pan-Ogoni organization, Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), Deeka Menegbon, for a chat.
It's a case of the absurd as the police in Abuja invited the dead scribe of the pan-Ogoni organization, Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), Deeka Menegbon, for a chat.
Menegbon, who died in 2003, and MOSOP President, Mr. Ledun Mitee, were invited to Abuja for a meeting with the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in-charge of Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID).
And apparently amused at the invitation, which has been honoured by Mitee, MOSOP gave a terse reply, 'Deeka Menegbon was the Secretary-General of MOSOP until his untimely death in 2003, so he will not attend".
Besides, the invitation was 'addressed incorrectly to a non-existent office in Port Harcourt" about a kilometre from MOSOP's former office that it vacated about three months ago.
The invitation has attracted the frown of MOSOP, which accused the police of showing, 'little regard for the law, which they are supposed to uphold".
In a statement issued in Port Harcourt, MOSOP's Information Officer, Mr. Bari-ara Kpalap, expressed, 'serious reservations about an invitation, which does not even contain the most basic information about our organization".
According to him, the MOSOP President, Mitee, was interrogated for about three hours on alleged illegal meeting, with some other persons. The deceased Secretary General of the organisation, was also alleged to have participated at the meting.
'The Police had alleged that Mr. Mitee and some others not disclosed, have held meetings where plans were allegedly hatched to overthrow the Obasanjo administration.
'Deeka Menegbon, who died in 2003, was also accused of having participated in the said plot. So, how could somebody who died in 2003 have attended meetings in 2005? The allegation, we maintain, is not only baseless but also mischievous".
The organization warned that, 'If the present development is to put a bad tag on our President, thus securing an excuse to ease him out of circulation or eliminate him, then government and its security forces have miscalculated", because the Ogonis would not be intimidated into abandoning their clamour for justice and fairplay.
'The Ogoni people are of a firm resolve and no intimidation, incarceration or even death can sway that position. It is our belief that solution to the Niger Delta crisis does not lie in increased intimidation, harassment and miilitarization of the oil rich region aimed at killing our struggle for justice, but lies in government sinking its pride and meeting the demands of the people".
Meanwhile, MOSOP leader, Mitee, has urged the Ogonis and other people of the Niger Delta to remain calm and pursue their demands peacefully.
Speaking shortly after his interrogation, Mitee advised the Federal Government to, 'go beyond its security response to the Niger Delta" and urgently address the problems of the zone.