Bisi Olaniyi, Southsouth Bureau Chief
The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has assured the death of a renowned environmentalist, Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni martyrs will never be in vain.
The group marked the 25th anniversary of the November 10, 1995 hanging of the Ogoni nine at Port Harcourt prisons during the regime of the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha.
Executive Director of the group, Dr. Godwin Uyi Ojo, said in Benin the nine activists were killed by the military regime while fighting for environmental justice, the clean-up of Ogoniland, remediation and compensation for the neglected people.
He said: “For over 60 years, the Nigerian government exploited oil and gas resources in the Niger Delta region, including Ogoniland, during which period extensive pollution of the air, water, sediment and soil in local communities in the region exposed humans and other life forms to severe risks, resulting in frequent deaths.
“In marking a quarter-century since the death of the Ogoni Nine, the Niger Delta environment still groans under the severe weight of environmental despoliation and poverty remains widespread, with little or no change on the welfare and livelihoods of the people.
“In 2011, the United Nation Environment programme (UNEP) documented the devastating long-term impact of the oil industry in Nigeria’s Ogoniland, setting the urgent recommendations for a clean-up and emergency relief measures that were sidelined.
“The systematic failure of oil companies and the Nigerian government to clean up has left hundreds of thousands of Ogoni people facing serious health risks, struggling to access safe drinking water and unable to earn a decent living.
“The commemoration provides the opportunity to highlight the ecological disaster and human rights violations that the entire Niger Delta is still facing, even after 25 years have passed since Ken Saro-Wiwa and the eight other activists were executed, for standing up to Shell’s operations in Nigeria.
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“The legacies of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the eight other Ogoni martyrs confront directly the multinational oil companies’ enormous political and economic powers over the Nigerian state and in coutries in the global south, where they conduct businesses, often without respect for national laws and regulations.”
The group also called for a United Nations’ (UN) legally-binding treaty to hold multinational companies accountable for their human rights violations in the Niger Delta, which it maintained would also ensure access to justice and remedy.
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