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Since Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists were killed by the then military regime of the late General Sani Abacha, Health of Mother Earth Foundation alleges that Ogoni land remains a wasted land begging for cleanup
IT IS exactly 20 years on Tuesday, November 10, that Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists were killed by the obnoxious regime of the late General Sani Abacha. Even as the people of Ogoni land remember their sons who died fighting for the emancipation of their people, it is sad that agitations to rectify actualise the course for which the men were made sacrificial lambs are still largely unresolved.
This probably prompted the Health of Mother Earth Foundation, HMEF, to a statement to remind the world that since the activists were killed, nothing seemed to have changed.
According to the Foundation, in the past 20 years, several cases have been brought against Shell before national and international courts on the company’s reprehensible practices.
“The report of the assessment of the environment of Ogoniland carried out by the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, absolutely validates all the complaints of the Ogoni people about the ruination of their environment.,” Nnimmo Bassey, director of the HMEF, said.
Bassey said that the implementation of the UNEP report would serve as a sort of restitution and penance for the suffering inflicted on the people of Ogoni and their environment. “It would probably also make Ken Saro-Wiwa and the other Ogoni martyrs turn in satisfaction in their graves, seeing that their labours have not been in vain,” he said.
Bassey recalled Saro-Wiwa’s last statement before the tribunal that sentenced him and his compatriots to death. The late activist said: “I repeat that we all stand before history. I and my colleagues are not the only ones on trial. Shell is here on trial and it is as well that it is represented by counsel said to be holding a watching brief. The company has, indeed, ducked this particular trial, but its day will surely come and the lessons learnt here may prove useful to it for there is no doubt in my mind that the ecological war that the company has waged in the Delta will be called to question sooner than later and the crimes of that war be duly punished. The crime of the company’s dirty wars against the Ogoni people will also be punished.”
Indeed, Shell has repeatedly denied involvement in the affairs leading to the executions of the environmental activists.
That notwithstanding, the HMEF boss alleged that Shell had refused to clean up the devastated Ogoni environment caused by its exploration and exploitations in the area for which affected value of lives and property of the people.
He alleged that since the entry of Shell into Ogoniland, the company had been in dispute with the Ogoni people who protested non-violently against the destruction of their environment on which they depended for farming and fishing. The frequent oil spills in Ogoniland and elsewhere in the Niger Delta have been estimated to be equal to an Exxon Valdez oil spill every year. Thousands of impacted sites in the Niger Delta remain to be properly remediated to this day, even when they have been officially certified as cleaned.
“We note the upsurge of criminalisation of environmentalists around the world and join men and women of goodwill to demand a halt to the killing of community and environmental activists. We also call for the trial of leaders of corporations committing crimes against Mother Earth,” Bassey said.
He warned: “The Ogoni patriots were martyred and buried, but that never buried their agitations. Neither did their being covered up in graves cover up the glaring pollution across Ogoniland and all over the Niger Delta. Polluters will have their days in court, as Saro-Wiwa prophesied. We are seeing those days already. A fast tracked clean up of Ogoniland will be partial atonement for the crimes against the people.”
Saro-Wiwa and his comrades in protest against environmental pollution were hanged by the regime of the Abacha regime on November 10, 1995, following a kangaroo trial that received world-wide condemnation.
In any case, prior to his death, Saro-Wiwa’s activities had become pivotal points in the environmental justice movement. Saro-Wiwa led the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, MOSOP, to bring international attention to the ecological crisis, including through an Ogoni Bill of Rights issued in 1990.
On January 4, 1993, the MOSOP conducted a peaceful protest involving 300,000 Ogoni people and declared Shell persona non grata in Ogoniland. This led to arrest of Saro-Wiwa and co-travellers on environmental issues.
The Abacha regime arrested, imprisoned and sentenced Ken Saro-Wiwa and the eight Ogoni leaders to death in highly questionable circumstances. They were executed on November 10, 1995, several days before the appeal period had elapsed.
The other eight Ogoni leaders that were executed along with Saro-Wiwa were namely, Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel, and John Kpuine.
— Nov 10, 2015 @ 18:40 GMT
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