Below is an article published by This Day Live:

As the political developments in Rivers State continue to unfold, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has said the next governor of the state in 2015 must come from Ogoni land.

The movement said it would not accept anything less than the governorship of the state.

MOSOP, the umbrella body of the Ogoni people, frowned at what it termed the continued marginalisation of the ethnic group, especially the lack of fair representation at the national and state levels.

A communiqué  signed by the President of MOSOP, Mr. Legborsi Soro Pyagbara, in Port Harcourt Wednesday [3 July 2013], said it came out with the position after  the body’s national congress in Bori, headquarter of Khana Local Government Area, where it unveiled the ‘Ogoni 2015 Project’ aimed at ensuring that an Ogoni indigene occupied the seat of government in the state.

Pyagbara called on political parties in the country to provide an opportunity for a person from Ogoniland to occupy Brick House, the seat of power in state come 2015.

According to the communiqué, “The congress decried the marginalisation of Ogoni occasioning our denial of fair representation at the national and state levels. The marginalisation has regrettably deprived our berth at the highest level of government in the state.

“Congress resolved that come 2015, Ogoni will accept nothing less than the position of the governor of the state.”

It therefore called on all political parties in Nigeria to provide that opportunity for Ogoni aspirants to become candidates to the office of the governor of the state as

“Nigeria did for the Yoruba nation in 1999, occasioning the emergence of former President Olusegun Obasanjo as President of Nigeria.”

MOSOP however, condemned the comments credited to the Rivers State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP), Mr. Felix Obuah, jettisoning the zoning of the governorship position in the state among the three senatorial districts.

It said recalled that the zoning arrangement had produced Dr. Peter Odili (Rivers South-West), Mr. Celestine Omehia and Mr. Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers East), adding that the next senatorial district (Rivers South-East) has not benefited from the zoning arrangement.

The body warned that Ogoni people may be compelled to withdraw their support for the PDP, if it failed to concede the position of the governor to them in 2015.

On the UNEP report, the movement decried the attitude of the federal government on the implementation of the United Nations recommendations for the restoration of Ogoni environment two years after the report was released.