While Nigerians were gearing up for the festive season, the
people of Odi in Kolokuma-Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, penultimate
Friday protested over the non-payment of N37.6 billion damages awarded to them by
a Federal High Court, NaijaAgroNet
reports.
NaijaAgroNet
also notes that the Federal High Court, sitting in Port Harcourt, had in
February 2013 ruled that the Federal Government (FG) should pay the amount as
compensation for the November 1999 military invasion of the community by the
former President Olusegun Obasanjo administration.
In addition, NaijaAgroNet
quoted the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the demonstrators, who
carried placards with various inscriptions, chanted songs in their dialect
while blocking the major roads.
Some women among them wore sack clothes and rolled on ground
on major roads in the state capital beside casket to show the grievance of the
matter.
Equally, NaijaAgroNet
reports that youths carried a mock coffin in remembrance of those who died in
the invasion.
Stakeholders, including Niger Delta Human Rights Organisations
and activists, Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), amongst others, participated
in the protest.
A former Federal Permanent Secretary, Dr. (Mrs) Timiebi
Koripamo-Agary told NAN that Odi had yet to recover from the aftermath of the
invasion.
“We have won all our cases and the court had ordered that
money should be paid to us. We are not happy with Jonathan because if the court
had given judgment, he should have complied with it in the spirit of the rule
of law.
“If they had not reported to Mr. President, we want to inform
him through our protest’’, she said.
NAN further reports that community leaders ensured that the demonstration was peaceful and the busy East-West Road cleared after about 20 minutes of blockade.
Isaac Oyimah/GEE
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