The Conscience of Ogoni People, COOP, says Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC has murdered sleep over its involvement in the murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa and other eight Ogoni indigenes.
Wiwa, Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbokoo, Paul Levura, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel and John Kpuinen were hung by the neck on November 10, 1995, by the Abacha junta on the allegation of murder.
Gani Togba, COOP national director said in a statement that it will employ legal means to get the federal government to decriminalise the Ogoni patriots, expressing hopes that the Supreme Court will do justice to its appeals.
Read the statement in full..
Fellow Ogonis, it is with a heavy heart that we are once again remembering the grave injustice done to us, the Niger Delta and to oppressed minorities in Nigeria 24 years ago – precisely on 10th November 1995.
On this date, the whole world stood still, even nature joined us to mourn not only the travesty of justice that took place at the Kangaroo Tribunal that merely pronounced a scripted verdict that fell far short of all civilized rules of decency and fair hearing, but also the gruesome execution of the Ogoni environmental rights activists.
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Today, as Ogoni people, we are remembering the supreme price paid by our heroes for our collective liberation. The whole world has joined us to remember their acts of love, their humanity, their sacrifices and their bravery in the face of repression from what was arguably the most dictatorial regime in the world at the time.
The Holy Bible admonishes us not to mourn like people who do not have hope. We have hope. These heroes did not die in vain. Though they were killed, their message is still alive today. We are all witnesses to the fulfilment of the prophetic declarations of Ken Saro Wiwa before the Kangaroo Tribunal.
He 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”.
Today, Shell, having murdered sleep, is no longer having sleep.
Fellow Ogonis and comrades in the struggle, each remembrance is a call to duty and for us to search within ourselves what we have done to keep the banner of the struggle flying. Our heroes must not die in vain.
For us in the Conscience of Ogoni People (formerly Ken Saro Wiwa Associates), you are all aware of how far we have gone in this struggle. The first task we assumed was to engage the Federal authorities to take steps towards clearing the ‘Ogoni Nine’ of all wrongdoings and upturning their convictions.
When this failed, we commenced a fundamental rights enforcement action against the Federal Government of Nigeria at the Port Harcourt Division of the Federal High Court. Though the learned trial judge admitted that the manner in which the Ogoni heroes were tried and convicted offended all rules of civilized conduct, he nevertheless dismissed our suit on technical grounds.
We filed an appeal against the judgment and only recently, the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt Division dismissed the appeal. We have approached the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Abuja for a review of the judgment of the Court of Appeal. Fellow Ogonis, we are hopeful that the Supreme Court justices will do justice to the Ogoni heroes.
Apart from that, we have made passionate appeals to the Federal Government and engaged the Federal Government on the need not to renew the legal licence of the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) upon its expiry in June 2019.
We are pleased to announce to you that the Federal Government has acceded to our appeal by refusing to renew the legal licence of SPDC. You are also witnesses to the recent attempt from the Governor of Rivers State to acquire the OML 11(Ogoni Fields) in collaboration with officers of SPDC.
As expected, we have risen to the occasion and enlisted the support of the Federal authorities to ensure that this does not happen.
We, therefore, remind all Ogonis that the only way we can show our ‘living legends’ that we love them and are pained by the injustice done to them is to carry on the advocacy and struggle from where they stopped.
We urge all Ogonis to continue to keep the faith as we are certain that God is on our side and we shall win. We further urge all Ogonis to remain law-abiding and pray for our collective success in actualizing the visions of our heroes. God Bless you all!
