Youths from the oil-producing Ogoni region of Rivers State have asked President Muhammadu Buhari to confer national honour on environmental activist, Ken Saro-wiwa, and eight others.
Saro-wiwa and the eight other Ogoni natives were killed by the General Sani Abacha-led military government of Nigeria while fighting against the degradation of their environment by the Royal Dutch Shell in 1995.
The Ogoni youth are asking President Buhari to do justice to their cause by clearing the names of the nine persons extra-judicially executed by the military regime of Abacha as well as direct the Nigeria Customs Service to release Saro-Wiwa Memory Bus to the Ogoni people.
Comrade Legborsi Yamaabana, President-General of Ogoni Youth Federation Worldwide, said Buhari should direct the immediate “bestow national honour on Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni martyrs for the interest of national healing and reconciliation”.
The bus, a memorabilia, was donated to the Ogoni people in 2015 but was seized by the Nigeria Customs, claiming it has “political value”.
The bus was donated by the Platform, a United Kingdom-based group, and has the names of Saro-Wiwa and the eight others executed alongside him inscribed on its side.
The bus also has a quote by Saro-Wiwa – “I accuse the oil companies of practising genocide against the Ogoni” – inscribed on its side.
It was seized after it arrived at the Lagos port from the UK.
