Ogoni traditional rulers repeat call for colleague's release

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(Nigeria) The Council of Ogoni Traditional Rulers, COTRA, has repeated its call on the Nigeria authorities to release abducted traditional ruler and the chief of Yeghe community, Chief Barinaadaa Gbaranee, who was forcefully taken from Bori on May 23, 2016 on his way back to his village.
COTRA in a statement on Friday, insisted that contrary to the army's claim, Chief Barinaadaa was not invited by any security agency and failed to honour the invitation.
"We maintain that where a chief fails to honor such invitation, the appropriate thing to do is to seek the assistance of the Council of Ogoni Traditional Rulers, where that fails, the matter should be brought before the Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers before further actions can be taken.
"We maintain that the abduction of Chief Gbaranee by the army occurred directly opposite the All Saints Anglican Church, Bori.
"We view this act as an humiliation and assault on the integrity of the entire Ogoni people and its chieftaincy institutions. We note that such actions portends great threats to the peace of Ogoniland.
"We wishe to emphasize its suspicion of sinister motives behind the Nigerian Army's presence in Ogoniland with reference to recent killings and in particular, the continual harassment, intimidation and violation of the rights of innocent citizens of Yeghe community and Ogoni as a whole.
"We call for the immediate release of Chief Gbaranee to us and urge the army authorities to investigate the actions of its forces in Ogoniland.
"We urge the international community to prevail on Nigeria to respect the rights of the citizens of Ogoniland. We note that the Ogoni people have had a long history of army and state sponsored persecution and will expect that in a democratic setting, its sad history will be allowed to fade away."

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