Ogoni March for International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples 2013

Over ten thousand Ogonis including MOSOP activists marched on Bori, the Ogoni ancestral capital, to protest the failure of the Nigerian Government to implement the United Nations Environment Agency's (UNEP) environmental assessment report on Ogoni two years after its official release. They gave a 90-day ultimatum to the Federal Government of Nigeria to set in motion the proper process of implementing the recommendations of the report. These include: scraping the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP) and set up an Ogoni Environmental Restoration Authority and establish Ogoni Environmental Restoration Fund. The protesters also warned that the implementation of the report would define the Ogoni response to federal elections in 2015.

The occasion was as well used in reiterating the campaign for addressing issues relating to Ogoni political under-representation.

The protest march was conducted to mark the 19th celebration of the World's Indigenous Peoples Day.

For the full text of the MOSOP president's speech on the occasion, please see attached.