26 years after the Ogoni environmentalist and activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, was sent to the gallows no thanks to the bloody regime of Late Gen. Sani Abacha through the instrumentality of his hatchetman, Gen. Paul Okuntimo, he (Okuntimo) has also joined the league of the dead.
Gen. Paul Olayinka Okuntimo’s (rtd) name was a dread in Ogoni following the conspicuous role he played in the calamity that befell the Ogonis in the early 1990s for refusing to allow a Dutch Oil multi-national corporation, Shell from drilling oil in their land which climaxed with the execution of their idol, Ken Saro-Wiwa by the Nigerian State on November 10, 1995.
Gen. Okuntimo has been in hiatus for years after he was allegedly used by his paymasters to silence the Ogoni cause which has however, continued to resonate.
He was the commander, internal security in Rivers State then. Gen. Okuntimo’s death was reported to have surrendered to cancer at the University College hospital, Ibadan, on Sunday.
He hailed from Yagba East Local Government Area of Kogi State, and served as the first Chairman, Workers’ Screening and Verification Committee under the administration of Gov Yahaya Bello.
