•Late Ken Saro-Wiwa and Tinubu
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been urged to grant state pardon to the late environmental activist, Ken Saro Wiwa who was hanged in November 1995 by the military Government and also pay compensation to his family.
Clean Environmental Foundation, (CEF) made the call in a statement signed by its Executive Director, Isaac Omomedia, stating that the President should make Saro-Wiwa a national hero and name a national monument after him.
The group stated that President Tinubu needed to understand the pain, misery and agony the Niger Delta people face due to the murder of Ken Saro Wiwa, reports Daily Independent.
He was arrested in 1995 by the military regime of the late General Sani Abacha following the mass attack on four leading Ogoni leaders.
The military government blamed him for the killing but many see it as a plot by the government to nail its avowed enemy.
Ken Saro Wiwa had raised the banner of resistance against environmental injustice to the global level.
A tribunal was subsequently set up by the military which culminated in the death sentence passed on Saro Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders.
The trial drew global condemnation from leaders across the world including the then South African President Nelson Mandela.
“We call on President Bola Tinubu to extend state pardon to Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others judicially murdered by the Nigerian State under Gen Sani Abacha. The President should declare Saro Wiwa a National hero after the state pardon granted him and eight others.”
CEF, a leading environmental group in West Africa recently, conducted an extensive research and tour of the Niger Delta to assess damage to the ecosystem and other biodiversity issues.
Omomedia said, “The return of oil exploration in Ogoni is not as important as building broken trust between the Ogoni and the Nigerian authorities. The Government should not give the impression that it is more interested in profit than in Justice.”
According to him, an average Ogoni man feels depressed, marginalised and traumatised by the killing of Ken Saro Wiwa who stood out as a man of peace that never resorted to armed insurrection, yet he was killed by the Nigerian state.
“President Tinubu should do the right thing. He will instantly enjoy the support of Ogoni people and the entire Niger Delta if he can be courageous enough to reclaim the lost trust between Ogoni and the Nigerian state,” Omomedia said.
Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa was born in October 1941.
He was a Nigerian writer, teacher, poet television producer, and social rights activist who lost his life in 1995
He led the struggle for environmental justice in the Niger-Delta with specific focus on Ogoni people.
Saro-Wiwa was a member of the Ogoni people, an ethnic minority which is very rich in oil and gas.
Ogoniland, in the Niger Delta, has witnessed crude oil extraction since the 1950s amidst complaints of environmental pollution and destruction of the ecosystem.
The region also suffers gas flaring with serious health implications and environmental damage.
There have been decades of indiscriminate petroleum waste dumping and construction of pipelines on farmlands denying the people food security.
