NEWS, NIGERIA
Seventeen years after their execution, details have emerged on how
former Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, now deceased, got members of his
defunct Provisional Ruling Council (PRC) to approve the death sentence
passed on environmental rights activist and author, Mr. Ken Saro-Wiwa,
and eight others.
Saro-Wiwa and others, who were accused of killing four Ogoni chiefs
opposed to the campaign by the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People
(MOSOP), which was headed by the late author, were convicted after a
controversial trial that attracted global condemnations.
MOSOP was at the vanguard of the agitation against the environmental degradation of Ogoniland arising from oil exploration.
But a memo from the meeting of the PRC, obtained by an online news
medium, Premium Times, showed how council members approved Abacha’s
request for the death sentence to be carried out on the Ogoni Nine so
that the military junta would not be portrayed as weak.
Members of the PRC at the time were Abacha; Maj. General Patrick Aziza
(Minister of Communications under Abacha); Major Gen. Tajudeen
Olarenwaju (General Officer Commanding); General Abdulsalami Abubakar
(Chief of Defence Staff); Lt. General Oladipo Diya (Chief of General
Staff); Maj. Gen. Victor Malu (GOC); Ibrahim Coomasie (Inspector General
of Police); Mike Akhigbe (Chief of Naval Staff); Maj. General Ishaya
Bamaiyi (Chief of Army Staff); Nsikak Eduok (Chief of Air Staff); Lt.
Gen. Jeremiah Useni (Minister of the Federal Capital Territory); and
Michael Agbamuche (Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of
Justice).
During the debate on a memorandum submitted to the council by Abacha,
many of the contributors had lamented how the government had been
regarded as weak for heeding the pleas by the international community to
pardon some coup plotters.
They had therefore stressed the need for the government to demonstrate
its capacity to deal with knotty security issue that the Ogoni case had
thrown up by upholding the death penalty passed on Saro-wiwa and others
to serve as a deterrent to others.
According to the memo, two days before the execution, Abacha had told
the PRC members that the activists deserved no sympathy, and that
hanging them would stem further discontent and prove to the world the
regime was bold and courageous.
“He was of the view that no sympathy should be shown to the convicts so
that the sentence will be a lesson to everybody. He stated that the
Ogoni issue had lingered for a very long time and should be addressed
once and for all,” Abacha was quoted in the document as saying.
The late head of state accused Saro-Wiwa of being a foreign agent used
to destabilise Nigeria, and a “separatist” who had hidden under the
cloak of being an environmental activist to pursue his devious agenda.
The execution of the Ogoni Nine, however, sparked international outrage
with the European Union and the United States placing an economic
embargo and other restrictions on the country.
Shell Petroleum Development Corporation, which was at the centre of the
unrest in Ogoniland, was also accused of complicity in the killings and
in 2009, it paid $15.5 million as an out-of-court settlement to the
families of the deceased persons.
But the company had said the payment was not a concession of guilt, but a gesture of peace.
Besides its decision to uphold the death sentence, the PRC also
proscribed MOSOP and used the resources of the state to weaken support
for the organisation and its leaders.
The tribunal that convicted Saro-Wiwa turned out to be one of the most
controversial in the history of this country. Headed by Justice Ibrahim
Auta, the current Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, the panel
delivered a speedy, but severely criticised verdict on October 31, 1995,
barely nine months after it was convened.
Their executions on November 10, 1995 without an opportunity to appeal
the judgment, led to the suspension of Nigeria from the Commonwealth of
Nations.
Others killed were Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul
Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel and John Kpuine.
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