From TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
The Ogoni Liberation Initiative (OLI) has again called on the federal government to exonerate the late environmental rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni sons murdered by the late General Sani Abacha-led military junta in 1995.
Also, it has demanded compensation for Ogoni and families of the four Ogoni chiefs whose death led to the arrest and subsequent execution of Saro-Wiwa and eight others.
Chief Executive Officer of OLI, Douglas Fabeke, while reading an eight-point referendum to mark this year’s Ogoni Day, also demanded the immediate dissolution of the board of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), over alleged gross mismanagement of funds and incompetence.
The OLI said Ogoni people were dissatisfied with HYPREP over the manner it has handled the funds released for the clean up.
Fabeke said: “Ken Saro-Wiwa and the other eight Ogonis were not criminals. They were innocent activists unjustly murdered for fighting a just cause on behalf of the oppressed Ogoni people.
“Their trial and subsequent execution did not follow the right process of law. Their right to fair hearing and right of appeal were hampered and thwarted. The Ogoni people, therefore, demand that Ken Saro-Wiwa and the eight other Ogonis should be exonerated of all the charges that were pressed against them.
“The Ogoni people call on the President Bola Tinubu to implement fully, all the demands of the Ogoni people as enshrined in the Ogoni Bill of Rights that was presented to the federal government in the year 1990.
“The Ogoni people are dissatisfied with the clean-up process of Ogoni land being handled by the HYPREP and the management of funds released for the clean-up of the Ogoni environment.”
OLI continued that the funds released for the clean-up has been mismanaged as HYPREP has either failed to execute the projects for which the funds were released, or engaged substandard contractors to carry out the projects.
“We, therefore, demand the dissolution of HYPREP board. We also demand a review of the clean-up process. All the funds released to HYPREP should be investigated.
“We call on the federal government to engage an international independent agency to carry out a review so as to ascertain whether the Ogoni environment is safe or not.”
The group further demanded the decommissioning of all Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) facilities in Ogoniland, establishment of health registry for the people, renovation and rebuilding of dilapidated schools and educational facilities in the area.
The group threatened that if their demands are not met within reasonable time, Ogoni shall cease to be a federating unit in Nigeria as they are prepared to press home their demands both nationally and internationally.
The people decried that 28 years after the gruesome murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others, nothing has changed and that there has not been any sincere move or efforts to settle the Ogoni people for their huge contribution to the development of the Nigerian economy and the injustice they suffered.
The group said: “We ply on bad roads, experience lack of electricity supply in the rural communities, lack of adequate healthcare facilities, no employment opportunities for the teeming youths, while the people still drink water from contaminated sources and cultivate on
polluted environment despite the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report’s warnings.”