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Saro-Wiwa's murder: Shell faces trial in U.S., 10 yrs after
From NWADIKE UGOCHUKWU,Port Harcourt
QUEST for justice over the gruesome murder of the renowned Ogoni Environmental
rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa who was slain by the military administration
of the late General Sani Abacha has gained fresh momentum with the putting
on trial of the Anglo Dutch Oil giant, Shell Petroleum Development Company
Nigeria Limited in far away United States (U.S.) over a decade after.
The latest development was revealed amid latest efforts to quench the violence
unleashed by militants in the Niger Delta and restore peace to the region.
The plight of the Ogoni people and their renewed commitment to the struggle
were revisited recently as they marked the dastardly act of the Abacha regime
exactly15 years on, offering final burial rites of Shell in the land.
"This is significant in that conducting the burial rites for corporate
irresponsibility, corporate driven strategy of divide and rule, corporate
oppression, we also celebrating the victory of non-violence of a strategy
in an increasingly violent environment," said the president of the Movement
for the Survival of Ogoni People(MOSOP), Barrister Ledum Mitee during the
celebrations in Bori, Rivers State.
A visibly agitated Mitee who also is chairman presidential committee on Niger
Delta, said last month, a U.S. District Court for the southern district New
York passed a judgment, insisting that Shell must face trial for its role
in the condemnable murder of the Ogoni Hereos.
Though not satisfied with the judgment, the MOSOP leader noted that justice
is rapidly coming almost 10 years after the families filed their case in the
U.S. court to challenge the murder of the freedom fighters who died in the
struggle for the Emancipation of the Ogoni people.
The Nigerian government over the years had subjected Ogoni people under untold
hardship, injustices, marginalization, and oppression in collaboration with
the Shell petroleum development company, he observed.
Mitee said: "No matter the strains of the length of time involved, justice
is coming to Ogoni people. The peaceful resistance of the people was the best
option for enduring struggle against the forces that continually seek to oppress
the Ogoni people, he said.
He stressed that "the struggle would continue to reflect on the lives
of all those who had paid the supreme price of martyrdom so that they may
live and learn from their successes.
"The choices they made and the difficult challenges that they faced and
see how we can adapt these lessons to the challenges we face in our present
efforts.
"We are on this anniversary of the execution of the heroes of the Ogoni,
as well, conducting the final burial rites of Shell in Ogoni land. This is
significant in that conducting the burial rites for corporate irresponsibility,
corporate driven strategy of divide and rule, corporate oppression, we also
are celebrating the victory of non-violence strategy in an increasingly violent
environment." Mitee said, after years of dithering, the federal government
finally came to accept what the people of Ogoni have always insisted that
Shell is persona non grata in Ogoni.
However, he called on the Ogonis to remain committed to the struggle in spite
of the fiery darts of hardship had confronted them on the way to victories.
Mitee also charged the Ogoni people not to be compromised by money from Shell
to mortgage their future. And to Ogoni students, he urged that they must carry
the banner of the struggle to the four corners of their institutions.
"The struggle required extraordinary commitment. As we do in the powers
of non violent peaceful resistance are breaking forth from the dark dangerous
of hopelessness to a bright morning of victory over decades of racial bigotry,
denial and marginalization from the Nigerian State." It could be recalled
that the four prominent Ogoni leaders were murdered in a stage-managed violence
that bore the trademark of the then head of state Abacha's military dictatorship.
National Daily learnt that within 24 hours, the Military Junta framed up the
leadership of the "MOSOP for the premeditated murder that set the stage
for the mass arrests, regression, rape, unjust detention and genocide."
The height of the criminality perpetrated by the government was the hanging
of Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders in November 1995, barely 10 days
after they were convicted. Despite the outcry by the international community
and the fact that the specified 30 days for appeal was yet to expire, the
junta regime still went ahead to execute the Ogoni nine.
The struggle by the Saro-Wiwa-led MOSOP was essentially directed at the expression
on Ogoni and Niger Delta activists and communities in collaboration of the
federal government and the oil prospecting firms.
It was a struggle against the occupation and destruction of the Ogoni environment
through underdevelopment promoted by the government in the Niger Delta region.
These issue still remain unresolved despite the Ogonis have tabled their demand
to the federal government to ensure enduring peace.
The list include that the federal government *must accept responsibility and
offer public apology for the murder of Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others and
the criminal atrocities by its agents, Shell and other oil companies in the
Niger Delta;
* should quash the murder conviction, implement the issue raised in Ogoni
Bill of Rights: that families of the Ogoni martyrs be compensated, with the
immediate clean up of the messed Ogoni environment; and
*must ensure democratic control of the oil wealth by the people of Niger Delta.