The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People has urged the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to start the process of clearing the names of the nine Ogoni martyrs, Ken Saro-Wiwa and the other eight persons, who where executed in 1995, in the interest of justice.
MOSOP also tasked Buhari to initiate the process of giving national honour to the nine martyrs, adding that immortalizing the individuals would perfect the quest for national healing and reconciliation.
The President of MOSOP, Legborsi Pyagbara, spoke yesterday in Port Harcourt during the Memorial Lecture in Honour of Ogoni Martyrs, tagged: ‘Centering Social Justice in Nigeria: Promoting Equality through Effective Participation and Inclusion of Indigenous Minorities the Case of the Ogoni People.’
Pyagbara said it was worrisome that after moves by MOSOP and other relevant agencies to get the Federal Government to exonerate the victims, no due attention has been given to the course of justice for the nine martyrs.
He called on the FG to give national honour and immortalize the nine Ogoni sons, adding that it would erase the blot on the nation’s conscience and prove that the present government shared in the pain of the Ogoni people.
Pyagbara said, “As we have said on previous occasions, the process of national healing and reconciliation will not be complete until the Nigerian Government clears the names of the Ogoni nine. The United Nation’s fact finding team which arrived Nigeria on April 1996 passed a verdict that the trial and execution of the Ogoni nine was unjust, unfair, partial and does not meet the requirements of both domestic and international Human Rights laws.
“MOSOP believes that the period of this commemoration provides the government of Nigeria with the opportunity to consummate the process of national healing and reconciliation with Ogoni people by formally clearing the names of the Ogoni nine of these wrongs and establish a national monument in their honour and memory.
“On this remembrance day, we are sending a strong note of appeal to the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to set in motion the process for clearing the names of the Ogoni nine.”
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