The Ogoni Youth Movement and Federation of Ogoni Youth Leaders Associatioon Wednesday condemned the “deceit and distortion of facts” in the portrayal of Sunday’s disruption of a rally by the Rivers State Police Command under Commissioner Mbu, during which Senator Magnus Abe was alleged to have been shot by the Police.
Some 10,000 of the Ogoni youths — from various communities of the four Local Government Areas of Eleme, Gokana, Khana, and Tai — today converged on Bori, the Headquarters of the Ogoni Ethnic Nationality and Rivers South-East Senatorial District, to register their grievances over the matter.
Beginning from the Senatorial District office along Hospital Road in Bori operated by the serving senator, the processional demonstration marched through major streets in the metropolitan city with a brief stopover at the Main Park and Market junctions, and later terminated at the Police Area Command, Bori, where the youths made their positions known to officers and men of the Nigeria Police and other security agents present.
Some of the placards carried by the protesters read, “Abe is a Liar”, “Magnus Abe was not shot by the Police”, “Ogoni for Goodluck Jonathan”, “Ogoni youths are in support of the Police”, “APC has no place in Ogoni”, “Magnus, show evidence of gun shots”, “Ogoni youths, Elders say Mbu must stay”, “Amaechi and Abe are collaborators in crime and lies” and “Ogonis are for Wike, PDP”.
In separate speeches at the Police Area Command in Bori, the youth leaders urged the police, particularly Commissioner of Police, Mbu Joseph Mbu, not to be swayed by the lies and blackmail by Abe and Amaechi, assuring the men and officers of the support and confidence of the Ogoni people.
They assured the security agents of the continued corporation and sustenance of peace in parts of Ogoni, but warned the Police authorities to be alert to the manipulations and evil tendencies of those they described as enemies of Ogoni.
Comrade Sunny Bekanwa, the national president of Ogoni Youth Movement, challenged Senator Magnus Abe to show to the world the wound sustained from the gunshot by the Police, wondering why a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will so demean himself to the extent of lying that he was shot at an event where no sound of gunshot was heard, apart from the canister of teargas used by the Police to quell an already-building-up confrontation in the area.
“I call on all Nigerians and people of the world to discountenance the allegation by the senator and the Rivers State Government, and I appeal to the likes of Abe to desist from blackmailing the police institution, as well as playing politics with serious issues in their desperation for power”, Bekanwa said.
Another youth leader, Comrade Israel Ngbuelo informed the Police that those who protested along East West Road against them were not Ogoni youths but hoodlums hired from outside the area by some Rivers State Government officials in the Ogoni area.
The youths declared their total support for the Police; Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike; the Peoples Democratic Party, led by Bro Felix Obuah; and President Goodluck Jonathan, giving the assurance that in 2015, all Ogoni votes will be delivered to Jonathan.
After the rally of the Save Rivers Movement was disrupted by the Police, the Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had expressed shock at “shooting of Senator Magnus Abe and Chief Tony Okocha, the chief of staff to Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi”, claiming as well that five children were killed.
