RIGHTS-NIGERIA: The Late Ken Saro-Wiwa’s Trial May Be Reopened

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

LAGOS, Nov 22 1999 (IPS) - Rights groups in Nigeria have demanded the re-trial of the late Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists hanged in November 1995 for their alleged involvement in the murder of four prominent Ogoni leaders.

Nnimmo Bassey, Director of the Environmental Right Action (ERA) and Paul Ohonbamu, Co-ordinator Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) said in a joint statement that: “The former trial was patently unjust and everyone saw that justice had no room in it. We call for a retrial”.

Bassey, marking the fourth anniversary of the murder of the Ogoni activists in Benin City, capital of Nigeria’s Midwestern state of Edo, said they would leave no stones unturned in their quest to have the case retried.

“If Saro-Wiwa and his compatriots are found to have been victims of a Kangaroo set-up, if they were murdered to satisfy the blood thirstiness of vampires in power, those vampires must be made to face charges in a free and open court of law,” he said.

He also demanded the release of the bodies of the nine activists for proper burial.

Bassey said the people of the Niger Delta, for whom Saro-Wiwa sacrificed his life, “are still denied the right to life, the right to control their resources, the right to self determination and the right to a safe and satisfactory environment in which to develop their full potentials.”

Niger Delta, where 90 percent of Nigera’s oil is produced, has witnessed a series of bloody confrontation, between the local people and multi-national oil companies, since Saro-Wiwa’s murder.

To reduce the tension, Bassey called for the immediate withdrawal of Nigerian troops, whom he refers to as the “armies of occupation” from the Niger Delta, especially from the Ogoniland.

Ogoniland, an area of some 404 square miles in Rivers State in the Niger Delta, has a population of about 500,000. Most of the land there is polluted as a result of oil spills.

Michael Bimbaum, senior English criminal lawyer, who attended the court proceedings in March 1995, said Saro-Wiwa’s trial might not conform to internationally-recognised standards of fair trial.

“The tribunal established to hear the case was neither independent nor impartial. The Federal military government’s decision that this case should be heard by a special tribunal, rather than the ordinary courts, undermines the normal rights of defence enshrined in Nigeria’s own constitution and in international human rights instruments to which Nigeria is a party,” said Bimbaum.

Saro-Wiwa’s hanging led to Nigeria’s expulsion from the Commonwealth in 1995. Nigeria, however, returned to the group — an association of more than 54 former British colonies — last weekend when the Commonwealth held its summit in South Africa.

The demand for a retrial of the Saro-Wiwa case has been welcomed by the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), a non-governmental organisation (ngo) based in the commercial capital of Lagos. In 1995, the CDHR condemned the trial and the killing of the Ogoni activists.

“Our position is that the trial at that time was illegal and unconstitutional. A retrial would be a welcome development because an injustice is an injustice,” says Sina Loremikan of the CDHR.

“The United Nations has said the trial was unconstitutional and called for the release of the corpses and compensation to the families of the hanged men but up till today, the Nigerian government has not done this,” Loremikan told IPS.

President Olusegun Obasanjo promised during his inauguration speech on May 29 to release the remains of Saro-Wiwa and his colleagues to the Ogoni people.

Among activities to mark the execution of the nine Ogonis, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), which Saro- Wiwa led, held a candlelight procession in Ogoniland in honour of their slain kinsmen.