MOSOP urges pardon for Ken Saro-Wiwa, eight others

The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has called on the Federal Government to pardon Ken Saro-Wiwa and the eight others that were executed by the military regime of the late General Sani Abacha on November 10, 1995.

The nine activists were killed in their quest for justice for the Ogoni people.

The group’s factional president, Fegalo Nsuke, made the appeal yesterday at an event to mark the 24th anniversary of the United Nation’s Secretary General’s fact-finding mission to Ogoni, noting that the special tribunal, which ordered their execution, had no jurisdiction to try Saro-Wiwa and the others.

He regretted that government’s response to a “simple and justifiable demand for basic rights and justice was repression by state security forces, and the hounding by a major oil firm through its agents, which led to the death of thousands of innocent people.”

The MOSOP leader added that the exoneration of the “Ogoni 9” had become a critical part of the Ogoni demands and would not be compromised.

He said: “It is unacceptable that our leaders were murdered and they expect us to be silent. The injustice done to Ogoni people is unthinkable and our claim to modern civilisation as a country and the only way we can reclaim this as a decent nation is to give justice to the Ogoni people.

“We are calling on the Federal Government to initiate moves to clear the names of the ‘Ogoni 9’ as a first step towards resolving the Ogoni problem to pave way for further dialogue on the future of the Ogoni in Nigeria.”

Nsuke harped on the need to end to the “discrimination against the Ogoni people in Nigeria and the exoneration of the nine Ogoni activists murdered by the Nigerian government on November 10, 1995.”

He also sought an end to the “constant harassment of civil rights activists in Ogoni, the brutality and rape of Ogoni women by Nigerian soldiers and the repression of locals who express their displeasure over the pollution and deprivations in Ogoni.”