The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has rejected the UN report on the widespread oil pollution in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region, and renewed its vow to launch fresh attacks against oil firms operating in the area.
In a statement, e-mailed to the media Friday, MEND described the report, which was presented to Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan on 4 August in the capital city of Abuja, ‘as a pathetic attempt at trivializing the wave of destruction wrought on the ecology of the Niger delta, the lifestyle and dignity of its people by criminal oil companies occupying the Niger Delta forcibly for the sole purpose of plundering the resources of its people’.
The militant group also criticised President Jonathan for accepting the results of what it called ‘dubious investigation’, saying the President has again proven himself to be ‘complicit, powerless or simply the village idiot of the Niger Delta’.
It said the report, which was commissioned by the Nigerian government and sponsored by Shell, was an attempt to ‘reclaim’ Ogoniland for shell.
‘We are not deceived by Shell’s pretence of concern and MEND forewarns all oil companies in Nigeria of the battle that is to come. Shell and its counterparts in the oil industry should not waste their booty on irrelevant studies of an environment they chose to destroy. Oil companies in Nigeria should save as much as they can for the days of darkness which are not afar,’ MEND said..
The report, by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) which carried out a 14-month assessment of pollution from over 50 years of oil operations in Ogoniland, found widespread oil pollution that could take 20-30 years to clean up.
The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), the leading environmental rights campaigner in Ogoniland, has also rejected the report.