Former Secretary of Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), Prof. Ben Naanen, has regretted that the many years of struggle for environmental justice in Ogoniland and accountability in government yielded not the expected result due to corruption and mismanagement of resources.
MOSOP, yesterday, marked the 28th memorial of the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists on November 10, 1995 by then Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha.
The don noted that the issues that propelled the struggle were national in character, lamenting that Nigerian leaders failed to address such issues due to greed.
He said: “The very issues the Ogoni were fighting for, the environmental issues, fair representation and accountability in government are still here with us today.”
Nanee, who lectures at the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), lamented: “It is sad. The struggle that was launched for 28 years could have given good governance, so that we could have a government that is accountable to the people. We have 13 per cent derivation, which came out of the struggle of Ogoni and other parts of the Niger Delta, but what has it become today?”
Similarly, former President of MOSOP, Ledum Mitee, called on the federal government to immortalize the late Ogoni environmentalist as pronounced by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration , blaming the rising security challqnges across the country to shrinking attention for justice by the leaders
Mitee stated this during an event organised by the Lekeh Development Foundation in collaboration with University of Port-Harcourt, tagged “Conversation with Ogoni Martyrs’ to mark the 28 years of the execution of 13 Ogoni leaders led by Ken Saro-Wiwa who began the struggle for environmental justice .
On his part, the Executive tive Director of Lekeh Development Foundation, Friday Mbani,stressed the need for a sustainable life, human rights and environmental justice in the Niger Delta region.
MOSOP President, Fegalo Nsuke, in an address entitled ‘28 Years After, Refocusing the Ogoni Struggle on the Development Goals of the Founding Fathers’, said yesterday was a momentous day to remember the leading lights and martyrs of the struggle.
Nsuke said: “Twenty-eight years has gone by, since the Nigerian government of the time brutally executed our leader, the erudite Ken Saro-Wiwa along with John Kpuinen, Dr. Nubari Kiobel, Paul Levura, Barbor Bera, Nordu Eawo, Saturday Doobee, Daniel Gbokoo and Felix Nuate.”
According to him, their deaths epitomised the murder of some 4,000 other Ogoni, who became the casualties of a Shell-backed state repression of the 1990s under the watch of Abacha.
FORMER aide to Saro-Wiwa and President of National Union of Ogoni Students (NUOS), United States of America (U.S.A.), Freddie Idamkue, has called on President Bola Tinubu to review the trial of the Ogoni Nine and exonerate them from what he described as trumped-up charges.
The call came as one of the steps to remedy the November 10, 1995, execution of the Ogoni Nine, bemoaning that after two decades of the “injustice” by the Nigerian government, no step had been taken to atone for the wrongdoing.
Idamkue also called on the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Olukayode Egbetokun, to beam his searchlight on Ogoni to probe the circumstances around the death of Dr. Barine Lenee from Buan community and Barry Ogbom from Bane community, and bring to justice the families of the departed.
