The Supreme Council of Traditional Rulers in Ogoni has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately take actions to mop up arms in Ogoniland and bring sanity to the area.
President of the council and Gbenemene of Tai kingdom, Godwin Gininwa made the appeal when he received the Minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed in his palace.
The minister was in the royal father’s palace to solicit the support of traditional rulers for the cleanup of Ogoniland, an event to be launched by President Buhari in the coming weeks.
Gininwa said: “You may be aware of the recent military operation in Ogoniland. This genuine intention of security agencies to sanitise our communities of illegal arms was politicised.
“As royal fathers, we pray for the improved and consistent effort of government to eradicate our communities of arms bearing criminals.
“This is most important as the cleanup is coming.
“Ogoni is faced with a dangerous situation where there are arms in almost all communities hence the supreme council endorses continuous deployment of military to Ogoni,” he said.
The monarch thanked Buhari for making moves to fulfill his campaign promise to the Ogoni people to clean-up their land that had been polluted.
“We recall that on Jan. 10, 2015, the president visited Ogoniland in course of electioneering where he made a promise that on assumption of duty, he will begin the process of implementation of the UNEP report.
“We are happy that he kept faith as less than 100 days into his government, he directed several actions to fast-track the implementation as promised,” the royal father said.
He assured that they would support the government to make the cleanup a success.
Earlier, the minister solicited the cooperation of the royal fathers in mobilizing their subjects to keep the peace and collaborate with the government in the exercise. (NAN)