ken Saro Wiwa was executed by the military junta of General Sani Abacha on this day in 1995
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
When in 1995 the military government headed by General Sani Abacha executed environmental rights activist, Ken Saro Wiwa, and others, Shehu Sani said he was an inmate at the Port Harcourt prison where the execution took place.
He was the leader of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) who protested government’s neglect of the Niger Delta. That pitted him against his former friend, General Abscha. Both men were once neighbours in Port Harcourt, with their kids being friends, according to a historian, Max Siolun.
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He was tried by a special military tribunal for allegedly masterminding the gruesome murder of Ogoni chiefs at a pro-government meeting, and hanged in 1995 by the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha. His execution provoked international outrage and resulted in Nigeria’s suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations for over three years.
Shehu Sani recalls the day he was killed. He said. “On this day in 1995,Ken Saro Wiwa & his Ogoni kinsmen were executed by the Abacha junta.I was in Port Harcourt prison on transit to Aba Prisons,as a political prisoner serving a 15 year sentence when i witnessed the execution.The gallows malfunctioned when it came to Wiwa’s turn, ” he said.
