Tony John, Port Harcourt
The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has said that there will be no peace in Nigeria until the Federal Government clears the names of nine prominent Ognoni people killed in 1995 by the military junta.
MOSOP President Lergbosi Pyagbara stated this in a speech at the 24th commemoration event marking the hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others by the administration of late military Head of State General Sani Abacha.
Pyagbara noted the recent national recognition by the Federal Government of the late Moshood Abiola, the winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election, insisting that a similar national recognition ought to be given to the ‘Ogoni Nine’ who were unjustly executed by government.
“Until the government clears the names of the ‘Ogoni Nine’ from any crime, Nigeria will not know peace,” he said.
“The process of national reconciliation will not be complete without clearing the names of the ‘Ogoni Nine’ of any crime,” he stressed.
The MOSOP President called for the judicial review of the allegations against activist Saro-Wiwa and the eight others, saying that it was one of the ways the wounds of the Ogoni people could be healed.
Pyagbara, however, warned that no one should play politics with issues concerned with the Ogoni struggle, condemning attempts to frustrate the hosting of the Ogoni Martyrs’ Day held in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
He noted that the Ogoni environmental crisis was one of the worst such disasters in the world, and charged the Federal Government to remove the bottlenecks hampering humanitarian intervention in the area.
“If government does the right things, Ogoni people will be happy with them,” Pyagbara stated.
Similarly, Peter Medee, the President of Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme (KAGOTE) local government areas that make up the ethnic group, said the event marked another milestone in the Ogoni struggle and lauded MOSOP for bringing joy to the people.
Medee described MOSOP as the pride of the Ogoni people, declaring that KAGOTE MOSOP had formed a formidable front for actualising the demands of the people.
According to him, the things Ogoni have achieved so far were products of continuous agitation.
Earlier, chairman of the occasion, Prof. Ben Naanen, said that Ogoni struggle was characterised by bloodletting by the government, leading to the loss of a generation of prominent indigenes that has proven difficult to replace.
“It is 26 years now since the Ogoni struggle. It has been a very sad time characterised by destruction and bloodletting,” he said.
The occasion also featured a public lecture titled ‘Environmentalism, UNEP Report on Ogoni and the triumph of people’s power in honour of the commemoration of the Ogoni Martyrs Day”.