TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt

An Ogoni-born former militant leader, Solomon Ndigbara, has accused politicians and traditional rulers of being behind the perennial cult-related killings in Ogoni land. 

Ndigbara,  who was popularly known as Osama bin Laden in his hay days, has also denied his alleged involvement in the resurgence of killings in the area.

He made the denial at the weekend,  when he spoke on security challenges and possible solution in Ogoniland, in felicitation of a Pan African Award on Peace and Community Development bestowed on him in Ghana.

The Mene Sirabara Ba Teera 1 of Ogoni Kingdom, who spoke at the weekend, after receiving an award of Most Outstanding Peace and Community Development Personality of the Year from Pan African International, alleged that most chiefs and politicians in Khana were accomplices in the menace.

Ndigbara,  who was  declared wanted  ahead of the 2015 elections by the security operatives in Rivers, noted that the killings in the area have surpassed human imagination and called on the police and state government for urgent intervention.

Related News

He called on Governor Nyesom Wike to quickly pick two persons from each community in Khana Local Government Area to constitute a security committee that would work with the security agencies in tackling crime.

He said: “I am not part of the killings going on in Ogoniland, I can go under oath to prove it. Our politicians know where the problem is coming from. May be it is a gang up to kill me.

“I cannot bow down to any cult group. I have told them that for us to end killings in Ogoni, let us get two people each from each community in Ogoni to form a security committee. Then, anybody who does not, who does not want peace at that point can leave Ogoni.

“We, the Ogoni, are the ones to solve our problems, people from outside cannot do it for us. It is like chiefs and politicians in Ogoni have interest in the crime going on in Ogoni. People have died too much in Ogoni. Unless we come together, we cannot see peace.

He also called on the Inspector General of Police to redeploy any police personnel that has served more than four years in order to get the security structure well.

“I am calling on the Inspector General of Police and Commissioner of Police to remove any security personnel that has stayed in Ogoni for more than four years. They should immediately be transferred. I am also calling on Wike to call all the politicians in the Ogoni to leave crime.”,   Ndigbara appealed.