Joyce Onwuka
The Clean Environmental Foundation, (CEF), has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to grant state pardon to the late environmental activist, Ken Saro Wiwa, who was hanged in November 1995 by the military Government.
The Group also wants a National Monument named after the late activist.
The CEF called on the Nigerian President to also pay compensation to his family to further reduce the pain, misery and agony the Niger Delta people face due to the murder of the activist.
Ken Saro Wiwa was arrested in 1995 by the military regime of the late Gen. 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 Ahmed 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” the statement signed by the CEF Executive Director, Isaac Omomedia stated.
The CEF is a leading environmental group in West Africa. Only recently, the group’s Technical Team conducted an extensive research and tour of the Niger Delta to access 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.”
He said today, 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.
Onomedia said “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.
He called on President Tinubu to also name a National Monument after the late environmental activist.
Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa wad 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 envionemtal 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 has been decades of indiscriminate petroleum waste dumping and construction of pipelines on farmlands denying the people food security.