This was stated in a press statement jointly signed by the President of NOUS Int''l USA, Pius Barikpoa Nwinee; Secretary General, Sampson B Npimnee; Coordinator, CDHRAC Int''l, USA, Cornelius Dumerenee, and Secretary General, Toate Ganago.

Members of the National Union of Ogoni Students International (NUOS INT''L USA), the Center for Democracy, Human Rights, and Anti-Corruption International (CDHRAC INTL USA), and the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) have called on President Bola Tinubus administration to ensure Ogoni people in Rivers State are treated with dignity.

This was stated in a press statement jointly signed by the President of NOUS Int''l USA, Pius Barikpoa Nwinee; Secretary General, Sampson B Npimnee; Coordinator, CDHRAC Int''l, USA, Cornelius Dumerenee, and Secretary General, Toate Ganago.

The groups lamented that Ogoniland has suffered years of environmental degradation despite being oil-rich.

The statement reads: We however want to use this opportunity to congratulate President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his forthcoming first anniversary in office, and we want him to note that it is not right to kill the chicken that lays the golden egg, and we cannot continue to suffer in silence and amidst plenty.

Almost all the previous administrations in the country have done little or nothing to develop Ogoniland that has been suffering deprivation owing to oil spillage and total neglect.

The people of Ogoniland have suffered the devastation of our ecosystems and land. Recall that several oil companies, including Shell Oil, set up operations in the 1950s in Ogoniland and since then, their land, water, and air have been polluted to such a great extent that the Ogoni people''s livelihood is threatened.

Between 1976 and 1991, over two million barrels of oil polluted Ogoniland in 2,976 separate oil spills. While oil production has ceased, pipelines operated by Shell Oil still traverse the land, creeks and waterways.

The Federal Government and the Niger Delta Development Ministry must rise to the occasion and bring the long-awaited development to Ogoniland.

NUOS INTL, CDHRAC AND MOSOP wish to call on the Ministry of Niger Delta Development to ensure a total clean-up of Ogoniland and compensate the people of the area for the loss they have suffered over the years.

Our people have been deprived of their means of livelihood and they have been left to suffer in a nation, where they have contributed a lot to through their natural resources.

We, however, wish to set an agenda for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as he marks his first anniversary in office and extend hands of fellowship to the people of Ogoniland.

Number one is the need to call a stakeholders meeting that will involve all the various groups, opinion leaders and elders in Ogoniland, who could be invited to an enlarged meeting in Abuja with all expenses paid by the Federal Government.

Issues affecting Ogoniland and how to resolve them would be discussed at the meeting. Our groups and others should be informed ahead of the meeting so that we can also send representatives from the Diaspora.

Secondly, the Federal Government should set up a committee to look into the issues affecting the Niger Delta, especially Ogoniland. The committee should comprise elders of the land, key stakeholders, representatives of the Federal Government and the youths of Ogoniland.

Thirdly, the government should fully implement the recommendations of the United Nations on how to treat the people of an oil-producing area like Ogoniland.

The government should not just depend on the Ministry of the Niger Delta and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to bring development to Ogoniland, but they should see the area as special and give it the treatment it deserves.

We also demand an increase in the number of local governments in the area with a view to ensuring more development in the land.

Also, more people from Ogoniland should be given federal appointments and this should be done in consultation with the groups in the area, both at home and abroad, who know the right people that would champion their cause and promote their interest.

Shell Oil company should be made to pay huge sums of money over the damages done to Ogoniland over the years. Our position is that Shell Oil cannot continue to pollute our land without accepting responsibility for what they ought to do.

Six, we are also asking the Federal Government to discard or reject Shell''s purported onshore oil sale or transfer because it is daylight robbery.

Hence Shell''s attempt and attempted purported sale in the disguise of globalisation is anti-property right and anti-legal fact that has no place in law," they said.

In a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations,  Antonio Guterres, last year, we recommended that an international remediation firm reputed with complex knowledge of best practices in deforestation, coastal erosion and ecosystem remediation should take over the ongoing cleaning of the Royal Dutch Shell decades of oil pollution and ecological war as well as end the HYPREP cutting corner policies in the area.

We urged the United Nations to make the declaration in part, to protect Ogoniland and Ogoni people from the Royal Dutch Shell''s decades of environmental misery and in whole, to stop Nigerian government and the Royal Dutch Shell from further subjecting Ogoni, Ogoniland and Ogoni people to the Royal Dutch Shell''s ongoing occupational pandemic.

We called on the United Nations to declare a state of climate and health emergency in Ogoniland or impress it upon the Nigeria government and the Royal Dutch Shell to immediately contract international remediation firms with professional experience and technical know-how capacity to stop this man-made outbreak misery."

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