By Valentine Amanze, Online Editor
Civil rights and environmental group, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), has called for justice and the exoneration of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the eight Ogoni leaders, who were killed in November 10, 1995 by the Nigerian government on false charges and tried by a kangaroo military tribunal.
Aside Saro-Wiwa, the other activists executed by the government include: Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel and John Kpuine.
The nine Ogoni activists, who were members of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, were accused and executed under the Military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha.
HOMEF, in a statement by Ogechi Okanya Cookey, the Communications Lead, insisted that years later, even after the witnesses recounted their statements, admitting that they were bribed to bear false witnesses against Ken Saro-Wiwa and the others, there still has not been justice for the masterminded killing of these men.
It, therefore, called on the Nigerian government to exonerate Saro-Wiwa and the right others as a step towards bringing the gruesome history to a closure.
Nnimmo Bassey, the director of HOMEF, stated that “exonerating Ken Saro-Wiwa and the other Ogoni leaders is the least the government can do to acknowledge the travesty of justice against the victims, the Ogoni people and humanity.”
He also called for the recognition of these men by the Nigerian government, as heroes of environmental justice.
Bassey added that “exonerating these men will bring a sense of recognition to the environmental struggles of the Niger Delta people and highlight the needed accountability on the part of the government and companies operating in the region while also showing the world that Nigeria is no longer a state that criminalizes dissent.”
He said that if Ken Saro-Wiwa were to be alive, the demands captured in the Ogoni Bill of Rights of 1990 would still form the bedrock of demands for the respect of environmental rights, cultural dignity and re-source democracy.
According to Bassey, Saro-Wiwa would not be silent in the face of continued ecological degradation in the Niger Delta.
“And we must not be silent, because as Saro-wiwa wrote, Silence Would be Treason.,” he said.
The execution of the nine men brought sanctions on Nigeria from the international community and led to Nigeria’s suspension from the Common Wealth of nations.
The cause for which these men fought and were killed was validated by the August 2011 report of the Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland by UNEP which revealed the depth of destruction of the soil, waters and air in Ogoniland.