"Ogoni 9: Environmentalist Calls on Tinubu to Heal Wounds and Stop the Bloodshed in the Niger Delta"

A former representative of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, MOSOP, at the United Nations, John Idamkue, has urged President Bola Tinubu to bring relief to the Ogoni people and put an end to the bloodshed in the Niger Delta region.

Idamkue, an environmental public policy consultant and former close aide to the late Ken Saro-Wiwa, made the appeal in a statement issued to journalists in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Sunday.

He expressed disappointment at the continued neglect of the Ogoni ethnic group by successive Nigerian governments, noting that the issues championed by the late environmental activist, Saro-Wiwa, have yet to be addressed.

He said, “Tinubu’s Ogoni Dialogue Committee flippancy with confidence building measures must begin with mitigation of the harm and injustice done to the victims of military repression in Ogoni.

“Tinubu should right the wrongs done to our people. The traumatic impacts of state violence on our people have festered for thirty years.

“Mitigation measures must include, but not limited to, psychological evaluation and counseling of the victims, rebuilding the homes and villages that were destroyed by the military, compensating and restoring those who lost their livelihood, and environmental remediation of pollution sites.”

Idamkue lamented that beyond the well-known deaths of the Ogoni 4 and Ogoni 9, over 4,000 Ogoni natives have been killed in the struggle for environmental justice, with no one held responsible for the atrocities.

He recalled, “Besides the Ogoni 4 and Ogoni 9, more than 4,000 other Ogoni victims perished in the course of the struggle particularly during the sponsored raids from Andoni territory, killings of Ogoni traders traveling from Cameroon, killing of Ogoni people at the Port Harcourt waterfronts, and the destruction of several villages in the Ban Ogoni Special Area by the Internal Security Task Force.

“In the wake of the unfortunate killing of the Ogoni 4 and after the hanging of the Ogoni 9, Col. Dauda Komo deployed hundreds of troops and the Internal Security Task Force who rampaged and terrorized our people, raped the women, and engaged in cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of our people. No one has been held accountable for the crimes committed against the Ogoni people.”

He further noted that the Ogoni struggle contributed significantly to advancing the pro-democracy movement against the dictatorship of late General Sani Abacha.

According to him, the movement also became a unifying cause for democracy advocates, especially those in the diaspora, something President Tinubu himself has acknowledged on several occasions.

He added, “Policy initiatives like the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP, the change of derivation principle of revenue sharing for oil-producing states from 3% to 13%, United Nations Environmental Program, UNEP, Report, and the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 are primarily attributable to the sweat and struggle of the Ogoni people and supported by the citizens of the Niger Delta.

“We would not forget the suffering, hardship, environmental pollution, and human rights violations visited upon the Ogoni people by successive Nigerian government and transnational oil companies as documented by the United Nations Fact-finding Mission to Nigeria, Justice Oputa Panel, UNEP Report, Major Paul Taiwo Panel Report, and other reports by Civil Liberties Organization, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Greenpeace, and PEN-WEST USA.”

The environmental expert described Ken Saro-Wiwa as a patriot whose visionary leadership inspired environmental awareness and advocacy across the Niger Delta.