The Movement For The Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) has again renewed its demand on President Bola Tinubu-led administration to exonerate slain environmental rights activist Kenule Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogonis of any wrongdoing.
Saro-Wiwa and his eight compatriots were gruesomely murdered by the General Sani Abacha-led military junta on November 10, 1995.
MOSOP President, Professor Olu Andah Wai-Ogosu, who made the call at a memorial martyrs lecture to commemorate the 19th Anniversary hanging of the nine Ogonis at Bane Town in Khana local government area of Rivers State, said the exoneration of the Ogoni nine would help to heal the wounds in the hearts of all Ogonis.
He said: “I want to use today to call the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was Ken Saro-Wiwa’s colleague from the side of NADECO to as a matter of urgency initiate the process of exonerating Ken and the eight others.
“We will push that issue beyond the jargon of pardon and exoneration because we believe that the official clearing of the names of our heroes will heal the wounds in the hearts of all of us.”
The MOSOP president also declared that the time for negative agitation for the emancipation of the Ogoni people was over, saying that the new leadership under him would use dialogue and engagement to achieve the dreams of the Ogoni forebears.
Wai-Ogosu said: “This is the time of meaningful engagement. We have passed the time of negative agitation. We have already started to move MOSOP back to the international arena. As I speak to you all, we have started meaningful engagement with the United Nations Unrepresented Peoples’ Organisation, UNPO. In the next few months, we are going to revive the vision that would remove helplessness and hopelessness from our faces.”
He stated that MOSOP is now positioned with the mandate of being the mouthpiece of the Ogoni people, saying, “Ogoni has four local government councils, and they are with us with the charge to reconcile the people, reposition MOSOP to be the mouthpiece and voice of the people but we can only be the voice if we are going to be forthright, courageous and stand for the truth.
“This movement is based on justice, fair play, equity, free speech, to be able to say your own, not to be cowed. MOSOP is well positioned now to take it up from where Ken left. I want to promise you that. We’ll start by recreating love for ourselves, reconciling ourselves because that’s why development also eluded us.”
In his speech, Rear Admiral John Nicholas Bakpo (Rtd) recounted the incident that led to the killing of the Ogoni 9 and called on the people not to make the mistake or engage in any action that would lead to the killing of any set of Ogoni leaders.
Bakpo urged MOSOP to unite the people and work to ensure that the aim for which the martyrs died was not in vain.
He said, “I must tell my own Ogoni people that we must not make the mistakes of the past, where we were divided against ourselves to create an opportunity to silence us because that’s what is happening now with these clandestine moves to re-enter Ogoni.
“We are seeing some division among Ogoni people, and the only thing we are seeing now is a situation whereby we will also fight ourselves, and those who think they are in front now would be silenced. We must learn from history.
“I enjoin Ogoni people to unite and remain resolute in their quest for emancipation. Violence cannot solve it, but we’ll not also keep quiet to see the same evil repeat itself in Ogoniland. Therefore, I urge MOSOP to rise up to the occasion and make sure that the sacrifice of our heroes in the past won’t be in vain”.
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