No Oil Exploration In Ogoni Until Ken Saro-Wiwa, Other Martyrs Are Exonerated – Ogonis
…Want President Buhari To Reverse Charges
Angered by the non-challant attitude of the federal government to their persistent demands concerning their slain hero, and Environmental Rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others, the Ogoni people are poised to frustrate any move to resume oil exploration in their land.
In a press briefing to mark the 25th anniversary of the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his other eight kinsmen by the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), the Ogonis made the following demands: Ken Saro-Wiwa and his kinsmen must be exonerated of the charges for which they were murdered, stop the construction of the proposed federal prison and cemetery in Ogoniland, give Ogoni people justice on the injustices done to them; the Ogoni clean-up should be accelerated etc.
In a statement made available by MOSOP Coordinating Committee on November 10 Hero’s Day, the Ogonis insisted that Ken Saro-Wiwa and the eight others were extra-judicially killed under the military dictatorship of late Gen Sani Abacha.
More annoying and dehumanizing according to the statement, was that these illustrious sons of Ogoni were buried in unmarked graves at Port Harcourt cemetery and their families denied the opportunity to bury them.
MOSOP is also of the view that the Justice Ibrahim Auta Panel of Inquiry that tried the ‘Ogoni nine’ did not apply the basic legal standards and as well denied the defendants the right to appeal the judgement which was their fundamental human right.
In his contribution, Dr. Gbeneme Kpae said the Ogoni martyrs only confronted the Nigerian government and its acolyte, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) against environmental degradation of Ogoniland, political marginalization, economic strangulation and oil pollution destroying the ecosystem of Ogoniland.
“All we are asking the president Muhammadu Buhari led-federal government is to exonerate Ken Saro-Wiwa and the eight others 25yrs after their illegal hanging, give us justice for desecrating our land, build industries that will create jobs for the teeming youths, build universities and research centres not prisons and cemeteries etc,” the Ogoni people declared.
