By Daniel Abia / Snr Correspondent P/Harcourt
With just a few weeks to the all important and just shifted presidential election, more communities in Ogoniland in Rivers State have come out to reject the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Mohammadu Buhari.
A few weeks ago, Buhari, who was led the director general of his campaign organisation and the Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, had visited Ogoni soliciting for votes with a promise that he would fully implement the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) on oil spills in in Ogonoland report if elected the president on February 28.
But reflecting on his antecedents and the process, which led to the gruesome killing of their icon, Ken Saro Wiwa, at a time Buhari was working with the late General Sani Abacha as head the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), the Ogoni have declared that the “APC candidate has nothing to offer Ogoniland.”.
The paramount ruler of the ancient Kaani Babbe community in Khana local government area of the state, Mene Worika Fade, said the Ogoni would not be taken backward when Nigeria was moving forward under President Goodluck Jonathan who is also the son of the Niger Delta region.
Fade, who expressed happiness for the peace that the community had enjoyed, explained that said he would ensure that the people of the community did the right thing in the course of the forthcoming elections.
“We don’t have two tongues. When we say yes, we stand by that no matter what anybody does. Saro Wiwa was our hero. We respect him even in dead. We in Kaani Babbe know what to do. We have always been on the path of truth which is why this community has been enjoying peace more than other communities in Ogoni.
“We don’t experience communal clashes here because we love ourselves and we speak the truth always. In this election, we will speak the truth as far as this community is concerned. I will talk to my people and I am sure they will do the needful”, he said.
According to him, “we have received several accolades because of our ability to sustain peace in this community. As I speak now, chiefs from other communities come to me to find out how we have been able to do it. I am very happy to be born into Kaani Babbe community and into this family. I sincerely thank God for His mercy”, the retired health worker said.
The paramount ruler who was speaking at a courtesy call on him during a door to door campaign by the Ken Saro Wiwa Associates led by the national coordinator, Chief Gani Topba, said the visit of the Saro Wiwa Associates to hi palace was to bring development to the area and vowed to deliver on his promise of ensuring that the community returns a bloc vote for President Jonathan.
Earlier, Topba told the monarch that he was in his palace because “you have the highest level of respect among the Ogoni and to also inform you about the latest development in the political and the position of the Ogoni”.
Gani, who debunked the media report that the Ogoni had endorsed Buhari, said such was one of the propagandas orchestrated by the APC government, insisting that on no account could an average Ogoni person support Buhari’s ambition of becoming a civilian president of Nigeria.
“Mene, this man (Buhari) was in charge of PTF under Abacha, who killed our son, father, hero and the Ogoni light, Ken Saro Wiwa. Since 1995 when they killed Ken, they have come here to apologise to us for what they did.
“This man that wants our vote, let us ask him the projects he sited in Ogoni when he was both Head of State and the head of PTF. I have come to tell you that no Ogoni person has endorsed Buhari and nobody will. We must vote for Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
“Jonathan has started the process for the implementation of the UNEP report. But it surprises me that the APC government in the state has been using the UNEP report as a campaign tool to cast aspersions on the president.
“President Jonathan means very well for the Ogoni people. We have to do everything legally possible to ensure that he returns to office as president and can only be achieved if the people of Kaani Babbe vote en masse for him on February 28”.
Topba, however, enjoined the Ogoni communities and the entire Niger Delta region to unite and deliver President Jonathan in the election, saying that the development of the region which has been neglected by several governments since the inception of Nigeria, can only be developed if he is given a second term.
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