Civil society organisations have called for the exoneration of the late Ogoni 9: the late Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others who were hanged on November 10, 1995, by the late dictator, Sani Abacha.
Saro-Wiwa, a renowned playwright and environmental activist, was executed alongside eight others for fighting for the rights of the Ogoni people.
A statement jointly signed by 16 groups, which include
Take it Back Movement and Ogoni Solidarity Forum, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to exonerate the murdered activists of the charges against them, and not grant them pardon.
The statement read: “Ogonis have over the past 2 decades consistently demanded that an admission that the quasi-judicial process which resulted in the conviction of the Ogoni 9 was a mockery of justice orchestrated by the military government with the active collaboration of Shell to quell community demands for resource and ecological justice.
“It is important to note that no civil society organisation in Nigeria has asked for a presidential ‘pardon’ for Ken Saro-Wiwa, Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel, and John Kpuine, who were unjustly murdered by the Sani Abacha dictatorship.
“On the 22nd of October 2021, a select group of Ogoni leaders attended a parley at State House with President Muhammadu Buhari. Among other issues, the President stated that the ‘federal government will consider the request for the grant of pardon to finally close the Ogoni saga’.
“The President made this commitment to ‘consider’ a pardon immediately after he declared that ‘the unfortunate incidents of the early 1990s leading to the loss of lives of distinguished sons of Ogoni land and the collateral judicial processes are indelible in our memories’.
“What we the civil society groups are demanding is the complete exoneration of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni 8. It is also important to note that the President’s suggestion of granting a ‘pardon’ is tantamount to saying that the Ogoni 9 were guilty and rightly executed.
“We deem the proposal to ‘consider’ a pardon for Ken Saro-Wiwa and his comrades insensitive and offensive to their memory and that of other victims of environmental injustice.
“We also consider it a denial of the need to bring closure to the (cases of) thousands of Ogonis who were victims of government-driven repression characterised by murders, rape, torture and forced exile.”
The groups also condemned moves by Buhari granting the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Ltd (NPDC), license to re-open and operate OML11.
They said it is unfortunate that the government would prioritise the reopening of OML 11 when issues that led to its closure in the region had not been addressed.
The statement added: “It is pertinent to recollect that in 1993, Shell was forced to abandon its OML 11 operations located in Ogoni and pull out of the area. This was the direct outcome of passionate but peaceful campaigns by the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) led by Ken Saro-Wiwa.
“MOSOP had called the attention of the world to the poverty, neglect and environmental destruction which decades of oil exploitation had bequeathed on the Ogoni people.
“MOSOP had also demanded fairer benefits to the Ogoni people from oil wealth, as well as remediation and compensation for the ecological damage caused by the reckless activities of oil companies. These have still not been addressed.
“The report of UNEP indicated massive soil and water contamination in Ogoniland, which has significantly compromised sources of livelihood and was slowly poisoning the inhabitants. It was only about 3 years ago, that the government began actual clean-up with the agency called HYPREP.
“It is therefore shocking that while the clean-up is ongoing, the government is prioritising restarting of oil extraction in the same area being cleaned up, with all its polluting impacts.
“Civil society groups maintain that is important to reiterate that proposing an unnecessary ‘pardon’ for the Ogoni nine, seemingly in exchange for support to reopen OML 11, is in bad faith and capable of breeding conflict.”
Other CSOs that endorsed the statement include Rivers state Civil society Organizations, We the People, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, Health of Mother Earth Foundation and Media Awareness and Justice Initiative (MAJI).
Others are Peace Point Development Foundation, Nigeria; Policy Alert, Nigeria;
Kabetkache Women Resource Development Centre, Nigeria; People Advancement Centre, Nigeria; Lekeh Development Foundation, Nigeria; SWAYA, Nigeria; Rights Advocacy and Development Center (RADEC); Community Development Advocacy foundation (CODAF); and Oilwatch Africa.
