Thirty years ago, precisely in 1994, Ogoni land in Rivers State was the vortex of an internecine strife that culminated in the lynching of four prominent Ogoni Chiefs by irate youths.The names of the four prominent Ogoni leaders who later came to be known as Ogoni Four, were Albert Badey, Edward Kobani, Theophilus Orage and Samuel Orage. They were reportedly holding a meeting in Giokoo community in the Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State when they were seized by the mob and gruesomely murdered.

Then President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight of his compatriots were blamed for the killings by themilitary regime of the late Gen. Sani Abacha which subsequently arrested,tried, convicted and executed the accused by hanging on November 10, 1995. The state-sponsored summary execution of the Ogoni Nine following a judgment delivered by Justice Ibrahim Auta on October 30, 1995 provoked outrage and condemnations by world leaders, individuals and organisations.

Since this tragic event, Ogoni land has not been the same with family members and supporters of the victims on both sides of the warring divide still spoiling for a showdown in their respective quest for justice. Indeed, 30 years after, the rage, pain, bitterness and the quest for vengeance have refused to abate, in spite of several efforts over the years to promote the process of healing and the return of peace in embattled Ogoni land.

Almost three decades after the execution of Ogoni Nine, which has become the biggest human rights albatross to the Nigerian government, the voice and tone of family members of the victims still convey severe pains, agony and despair. “The scar has refused to heal”, said Mrs. Victoria Beera, wife of Baribor Beera, one of the Ogoni Nine.

Speaking in a telephone interview from her base in Canada on Saturday, Victoria, now in her 50s made it clear that no amount of monetary compensation (if any) can assuage the pains of losing her beloved husband after a trumped-up charge by the military tribunal.

“We need justice. I was barely 22 when they killed my husband. I have two children. Since that unfortunate incident, government has not bothered to reach out. I am not asking for money. My demand is that government should open a channel of communication with the deceased families of the Ogoni Nine. We must sit down and talk things out”.

Victoria believes that if somebody has been wronged and it is clear that that person has been wronged: “What are you supposed to do? You have to apologise for your mistakes. That apology is what we are demanding and the government has continued as if there is nothing wrong with that”.

Speaking slightly differently, Dr. Owen Saro-Wiwa, a brother to the environmental activist and the arrow head of the Ogoni freedom movement, Ken Saro Wiwa said in 29 years after the brother’s death, “there are some positive changes in the waterways, the land and the atmosphere”.

Owen recalled that it was the widespread pollution of the Ogoni environment and the attendant destruction of the people’s livelihood that led to the struggle which resulted in the death of the Ogoni Nine by the military dictatorship of the late General Sani Abacha.

“We notice these positive changes because there has not been oil drilling in Ogoni for nearly 30 years now,” he said. “The air is now a bit cleaner. The waterway is a bit cleaner and the fishermen have returned to fishing for their livelihood. But it will take some time for the land to be remedied. I am told that the HYPREP is doing well to revive the land. Spills have reduced”.

On the issue of justice, Owen noted that it was clear that the panel that found the Ogoni 9 guilty was a “Kangaroo panel” set up by Abacha to do the bidding of the state. “That panel did not follow the rule of law,” meaning that “those who were wrongly accused and unjustly executed must be exonerated”.

According to him, the issue of justice can also be addressed when Ogonis are appointed into positions of authority both in Rivers State and at the national level. “Those who testified against Ken are the same people that HYPREP (Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project) is giving contracts to.

“The remains of the chiefs who were killed in the process should be given to their families for proper burial. 29 years after, Ken’s memory remains fresh not just in Ogoni, Nigeria but the world over. Ken and Co should be exonerated from any criminal charge leveled against them. Those families should be compensated by the government. I am not in the position to mention the amount of money because the struggle is not about money. It is about freedom and justice, equity and fairness.”

Another recurring claim is that since the creation of Rivers State in May 27, 1967, no Ogoni indigene has ever occupied any influential position in the political space of the state. The highest has been the office of Secretary to the State Government, SSG, which was once occupied by Senator Magnus Abe. Maybe by others in the past.

This “injustice” is basically what has added to the struggle with many Ogonis calling for the creation of their own independent territory, Bori state where they can control their resources and use same for the betterment of their people.

Like Victoria Beera, 70-year-old Deekai Kpuinen,an elder brother to the slain John Kpuinen, re-echoed thus: “The pain is perpetual. For a vibrant young man not caught in any notorious act to suffer death by hanging like a common criminal, is most appalling.”

A physically worried Deekai declared that apart from exonerating the Ogoni Nine: “Palliatives must be paid to these families to ameliorate their sufferings over the years. Their children should be trained by government and their widows adequately taken care of”.

The case of the late John Kpuinen took a downward turn when his wife died in 2012, leaving behind the only son of the family. “The boy is just 18 years now. He cannot go to school because we don’t have the money to sponsor him. The mother died in 2012 and that made things even worse,” Deekai lamented.

The elder Kpuinen who was careful not to mention the monetary terms of the palliatives wants the President Bola Tinubu’s government on behalf of the Nigerian state to tender a public apology to the families of the Ogoni Nine that the action of the November 10, 1995 was carried out in error.

“We cannot quantify the life of my brother monetarily. We are not talking of money. We want justice. Let this government tender an apology to us. That is the soothing balm. Anything short of that, we will not accept. They were falsely accused, wrongly charged and inhumanly murdered. Just apologise, that is all.”

Opnaaatuka Nordu Eawo was just 12 years when his father, Nordu Eawo, was brutally executed. He is the first in a family of ten children. According to him, none of his siblings has been able to get a basic education because “we cannot afford it.”

Opnaatuka, now 41, operates a commercial motorcycle (Okada) business to feed his family of three kids and wife. “We want a face-to-face discussion with the government. We are not asking for money. We need money quite alright, but that is not our demand. We want to meet with the government.

“We are still in pains. We have been living in pains for 29 years now. Nigerian government cannot just inflict this kind of pain on us and abandon the whole generation of people like that. We will keep demanding for justice until we achieve it. It may take time, but we will not slack. No.”

In his solidarity statement, the President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people, MOSOP, Fegalo Nsuke, thanked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his promise last week to honour the Ogoni 9, twenty nine years after they were “wrongly accused and later executed.” He did not stop there.

“Mr. President’s promise has brought lots of hope that sooner, the Ogoni people will get better attention and the problems will eventually be resolved in a manner that will be comfortable to the parties involved. What is most important is how we actualise the dreams of the struggles of the people.”

Nsuke explained that the most fortunate thing is that MOSOP has provided a framework that is an acceptable pathway to resolve the problem in Ogoni. “MOSOP’s proposal calls for a commitment of a fair proportion of the profits made from natural resources extraction to be committed to Ogoni development.” This explains why the group formed the Ogoni Development Authority, ODA, as a driving force for the envisioned development.

“There is also a reality we cannot run away from and that has to do with the innocence of the nine executed men, including Ken Saro-Wiwa. The government should strongly consider setting up a judicial process to review that judgment of Justice Ibrahim Auta and the process that led to the executions. Justice has to be seen as served despite the fact that the lives of the nine have already been lost.

“Ogoni needs to move on and addressing the core demands for development is fundamental and in the best interest of our people and government of Nigeria,” he said.

Over the years, there have been some surreptitious moves by government to resume oil exploration in Ogoni without a recourse to settling the existential scores in that part of the country. For MOSOP, a review of the Justice Auta judgment will not only calm frayed nerves, “it will soothe the pains and heal the scars.”

Wiwa, others, do not deserve exoneration, but can be honoured alongside Ogoni Four – Badey’s son

Mr. Suage Badey, a son of Mr. Albert Badey, one of the four Gokana Local Government Area men, now known as Ogoni Four, who were killed on May 21, 1994 and their corpses taken away by unknown persons, has insisted that the families of the four chiefs have not got the full justice which they deserve.

Suage ruled out the call for the exoneration of the Ogoni Nine, which included the foremost environmental activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, alleging that the Ogoni Nine masterminded the killing of the four chiefs.

He said the families of the four chiefs have only got half justice in the hanging of Wiwa and others, but that some of the people who took part in the murder of their fathers still live as freemen.

Suage said: “We have only gotten half justice. Those who instigated the murder of our fathers consequently did not escape the hangman. By this we can say we have gotten half justice. But there are many who participated in that gruesome murder who are still lurking in the shadows. And if such people do not show remorse up till this moment, as are instigators of those who can come out and speak out for the exoneration of Ken Saro Wiwa, then Justice has not really been served.

“The truth about it is that the press has not been helpful to the Ogoni Four. I don’t know if the press went to Gokana to feel the pulse of the people and to get to know the truth about Saro Wiwa.

“It does not really mean that because somebody was an environmental activist, that such person cannot commit a crime. That is my point. On the other hand, they make the Ogoni Four look like they were not human beings, that they were animals who deserve to die. In the court of public opinion the truth in most cases is not propagated. And for the press, it seems they have jettisoned investigative journalism.”

He said the families of those killed in Ogoni need peace, adding that the Ogoni Nine was not made up of saints. “Look at the Ogoni Nine: Ken is an intellectual, who is Baribom Bera? Go to Bera Community in Gokana, and quietly find out who he was. He was a motorpark tout without formal education. He was the person who stood side by side with Wiwa as a human rights activist and an environmentalist.

“Some of them were like that and I feel sorry for them, because if somebody creeps into your unconsciousness, he definitely would take control of your consciousness.

“They carried out what they believe and what they thought was the best thing. If somebody convinced them that the four chiefs were responsible for the problem in Ogoni land; that they are standing between them and your riches, of course, an ordinary, uneducated man who is not enlightened, will believe and act ignorantly. That is what happened in Ogoni.

“We want peace in Ogoni. Obviously, we didn’t see the corpses of our fathers. This is a trauma for us every day of our lives. We did not see their bodies till today. But even if we don’t get the bodies, can’t they be fair enough, those who are propagating all these falsehoods, can’t they be fair enough to be remorseful?”

He wondered why the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, does not condemn the killing of the Ogoni Four in their agitations, but claim that the military killed them during a raid. Suage urged the leaders of Ogoni to put the stories around the murder of Albert Badey and others right and leave out the issues of compensation for the nine.

He said: “Can’t they say this is one wrong thing we did, we killed our own. It will encourage forgiveness on our own part. But instead they are saying only the Ogoni 9 should be exonerated simply because they are looking for compensation.

“Compensation that by the time you have your lawyers in place and before you know it, half of the money that will come will be shared between these lawyers and those who are in front of the fight for compensation. That is all they care about. They are not interested about the feelings of others that they killed.

“Usually it was Ogoni 9, but because I came out to speak, MOSOP is now saying Ogoni 13. But have they consulted the families of the four? If the narrative is right, we can join you in the move for compensation. But don’t tell me to go for compensation when you are putting money in front. So, I should now sell my father, who was brutally murdered, butchered and his body taken away in spite of all his contributions to Ogoni land.

“That path that they have decided to toe is what has led us to where we are today. Ogoni is totally rudderless. Today murder has become common in Ogoni. In Ogoni today there is arbitrary killings and disappearances are very common. The people doing all these, their children are not in this country.

“Some of them have told their children, if I die don’t come back to Ogoni. All they are doing is milking Ogoni and leaving the place in distress.

“If you know the truth stand by it. A call for exoneration of the Ogoni Nine is a slap on the families of the Ogoni Four; a slap on all those in Ogoni who know that this call is based on a lie. Saro-Wiwa as a man was deceptive. We in Niger Delta, we share in pain that we are being deprived and oppressed. But, even as we share in that pain, we should be able to know when we have gone wrong in our actions.

“The moment you begin to raise the issue of exoneration, you begin to remind us, the family of the four, that you are not remorseful and you don’t care about the death of our fathers.

“Some of them propagate that it is the military that killed the four. If it was the military that killed the four, I was alive and I was there, have you heard MOSOP come out to express their grievances that it was the military that killed the Ogoni Four?

“They only do that in November. They want to quieten the Ogoni Four; so now they say Ogoni 13. When they want to pursue their agenda of deception, they say Ogoni Nine.May 21 will come and pass and it will be as if nothing happened. These four men brought about the real change in Ogoni.

“Every Ogoni son who died should be honoured, but I am against the exoneration of criminals who instigated and participate in the gruesome murder of our fathers.”

Vanguard Columnist, Donu Kogbara, said her father, Ignatius Kogbara, was nearly killed on that fateful day the Ogoni Four were lynched by the irate youths who pursued him on a motorbike. Writing in her column three years ago, she recalled that the bodies of the slain four Oni chiefs were never been recovered. “The burial ceremonies organised by their devastated families were purely symbolic because the coffins were empty,” she wrote, adding: “Some of those who lynched the Ogoni Four are still alive and at large. I will not oppose a pardon for Saro Wiwa if the lynchers can please tell us where the remains of Kobani, Badey and the Orages were concealed. An anonymous note will do, thanks.”

However, Ogoni Beyond Oil and Politics, BOP, Project has regretted that three decades after the death of the four Ogoni chiefs and the consequent murder of Wiwa and others, the Ogoni are still toeing the path of self-destruction.

Leader of BOP, who is a traditional ruler in Gokana, Mene Kadilo Kabari, said Ogonis must think beyond oil and politics to reunite and rebuild Ogoniland.

Bakari had said: “While joining all Ogonis and indeed the global human and environmental rights community to mark the 30th anniversary of gruesome killing of the late Chiefs Albert Badey, Edward kobani, Theophilus Orage and Samuel Orage, the BOP Ogoni project, an organisation of new breed Ogonis who are committed to bridging the future, today, declares it as most unfortunate that the ominous clouds of environmental, social and political injustice still hangs over Ogoniland.

“This anniversary once again calls for sober reflection on where we were, where we are and where we ought to be in actualisation of the hopes and aspirations of our forebears that culminated in a struggle for which they lived and died.

“It is saddening, however, to note, in all honesty, that we are a far cry from the lofty dreams of our great leaders who lost their lives in the Ogoni struggle.

“It is, therefore, the position of members of the BOP Ogoni project, that Ogonis far and near must go back to the drawing board, reflect on the struggle that was developed around the tripod of environmental, social and political injustices which still stare us all in our faces.

“The social stigma of a disunited people, whose leaders were gruesomely murdered first by themselves and then by the state, leaving behind a nightmare of failure from the Ogoni Bill of Rights to even producing a governor, deputy governor, speaker or chief judge of Ogoni extraction since the creation of Rivers State is indeed a darkling plain which requires concerted efforts of all and sundry to change the narrative in every front.

“The project, therefore, calls on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency and in the spirit of genuine healing and reconciliation, set up a joint committee that will see to proper funeral rites of all Ogoni leaders lost in the unfortunate killings that started on this day 30 years ago…subsequently a post humous pardon on Ken Saro Wiwa and other martyrs of the Ogoni struggle whose agitation has been vindicated by the UNEP report and who later findings reveal were victims of manipulation of a people against themselves.”

Families of the Nine Ogonis executed by the military government in 1995 have called for the establishment of a Trust Fund that would meet the needs of the families of the 13 leaders of Ogoni, who died in their struggle for the ethnic group in Rivers State.

mr Opnaatuka Saana Nordu Eawo, son of Nordu Eawo, who is among the Ogoni nine executed on the November 10, 1995, said the families of the slain leaders of Ogoni have been abandoned.

Opnaatika noted that his father was killed when he was still 12 years old, adding that the killing of his father cost him his education.

He regretted that the family of a man who paid the ultimate prize to bring economic freedom for the Ogoni people has been abandoned, adding that the death of their father has not brought any benefit to the family.

He said: “I was 12 years old when my father was killed alongside Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others. I am not happy; even the entire family is not happy because we lost our father who is the bread winner of the house and nobody showed concern.

“I am supposed to be educated but because of the death of my father in the Ogoni struggle I did not meet up.

“I am telling you that there is nothing the family has benefited from the struggle. Nobody is turning to look at us. Even with the HYPREP that is in charge of the cleanup, nobody is taking care of the families of the victims. We are just like an abandoned project.

“We need justice and the exoneration of my father from the crime labelled against him. We need to establish a platform where we can discuss. The government should carry us along.

“The death of my father cost me and my siblings our education. We are 10 in number and none of is a graduate. As a talk to you now, I drive tricycle to take care of my family. Somebody whose father died for a struggle like this is driving Keke (commercial tricycle).

“My mother is blind and because of money we cannot take him to the hospital. The government should take steps to exonerate my father and the others.

“I grew up without fatherly guide because of Ogoni struggle. When you grow without a father to guide you there are things you will lose.

“Nobody is remembering my father and the others, rather they are using the death of my father as a business. Some people are using the Ogoni Nine as business instead of doing the rights they are supposed to do.

“If government wants to do the right thing in Ogoni land they should liaise with the family of the 13. They should communicate with the families on what should be done.

“Like, if they are giving scholarships, the families of the martyrs should be reached. They should not be going politicians. They should reach the families. They should visit the families.

“It is the death of my father and the other Ogoni leaders that brought HYPREP. But as I talk to you, no family member of the Ogoni 13 is working in HYPREP, or a stakeholder in HYPREP. They are there to benefit from the blood of our fathers without engaging with the families.

“They know that I don’t have anybody to support me; if not I would have taken them to court. Even as I talk, I have a human rights lawyer who would support me, I will take them to court.

“The Federal Government should look into the worries of the Ogoni 13 families. They should create a Trust Fund for the families and exonerate our fathers. Then they should invite HYREP to do the right thing.” (Vanguard)