Two Ogoni groups have threatened a showdown of crude oil production if President Muhammadu Buhari fails to order to release of a bus sculpture created in memorial of late environmental rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa.
The Social Action and the Ogoni Solidarity Forum made this information public in a press briefing on Friday, November 6, 2015 in Lagos. According to the groups, they had exhausted all peaceful avenues to secure the release of the bus which was impounded in September on the orders of Colonel Hamid Ali, the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service.
The bus (pictured) is a memorabilia created by Sokari Douglas Camp and donated by a UK group to the Ogoni people to mark the 20th anniversary of the death of Saro-Wiwa who was murdered in cold blood on November 10, 1995 after being sentenced to death by a extra-judiciary panel which Colonel Ali was a member during the despotic regime of Late General Sani Abacha.
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Customs officials impounded the sculpture, in the form of a steel bus, grounds of its “political value”, and leaflets and reports sent by courier to commemorate Saro-Wiwa’s life and death were also seized, The Guardian reports.
Col. Hamid Ali (rtd), who was handpicked by the Abacha regime as a member of the kangaroo tribunal that sentenced renowned environmentalist and minority rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa to death by hanging, was on Thursday, August 27, 2015 named by President Muhammadu Buhari as the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
Reacting to the cold-blooded murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa and 8 other Ogoni indigenes, Col. Ali said he had no regrets over his role in the judicial process that led to Saro Wiwa’s execution.
Not An Ordinary Bus
”For us it’s just more than a make-shift steel bus, and we demand to have that bus back. We have exhausted every peaceful avenue we have got, and that’s why we are calling this meeting and telling you, that come the 9th of November, 2015, if the government does not release the property of the Ogoni people to the Ogoni people, the Ogoni people will take action,” Ken Henshaw, senior programme manager of Social Action told the press.
“And we dare to say that economic activity around the area of the Ogoni nation, which includes the NNPC and so on and so forth, will be stopped.
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“The Ogoni people are fully mobilized. We have been the ones holding them back, that you don’t need to take this kind of action at this time. There is visible anger. We are being seen as traitors over this and we have made up our mind.
“We will let whatever wants to happen happen on the 9th of November. And this is our last attempt at appeal to the government – release what belongs to the Ogoni people to the Ogoni people.
“We are tired of this posture of belligerence with the Ogoni people which the government of Nigeria has continued environmentally and physically since the 90’s. And for us this is the last straw and it has broken the camel’s back.”
On Thursday, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), a human rights group founded by the late Ken Saro-Wiwa also threatened a protest if the Nigeria Customs fails to release the bus.
Customs Boss, Ali Keeps Mute
When contacted the Nigeria Customs Service denied knowledge of the bus.
”As I speak with you I still don’t know in which Customs command this thing was done,” Wale Adeniyi, spokesman for Nigerian Customs told newsmen on Friday. “They just said Lagos port and I’ve called the two major ports in Lagos and they don’t seem to know about it. The Area Comptroller should know if such a thing exists.”
A journalist told Mr. Adeniyi that the bus was being held at Grimaldi at the Tin Can Island, he promised to call back in ten minutes. He never called Premium Times back and failed to respond to calls and text messages on the subject matter.
“The Shadow of Ken Saro-Wiwa Will Kill Somebody”
“I accuse the oil companies of genocide in Ogoniland,” the words of Ken Saro-Wiwa at his trial was inscribed on the side of the bus.
Henshaw told the press that his group and the Ogoni Solidarity Forum had petitioned the Customs boss, Hamid Ali demanding the release of the bus. Colonel Ali has not replied their petition. He said that the Ogoni people viewed the actions of the Nigerian government as “intentional aggression against the Ogoni people”.
“So as far as we know, our bus has been seized by the Nigerian government for many many reasons one of which is an intentional aggression against the Ogoni people, second of which is an attempt to eliminate every memory of the struggle of Ken Saro-Wiwa from the history of this country.
Henshaw had gone to the Grimaldi Terminal in the company of Celestine Akbobari, the national co-ordinator of the Ogoni Solidarity Forum, and Aremu Abiodun, a clearing agent to clear the bus on its arrival.
“We were taken to the office of the valuation officer, the Customs officer in charge of valuation, Aina Moyo,” Akpobari recounts.
“And he told us right there in his office that ‘the shadow of Ken Saro-Wiwa can kill somebody. I don’t want to get myself involved in the release of this one, especially now that Buhari is on seat. If it were before I can just release this bus now. You will have to go to Abuja. You, you know that the shadow of Ken Saro-Wiwa can even sack somebody from work. My work is important to me.’
“We went to Abuja and stayed in Abuja for over two weeks meeting with people. The same thing. Important people, great people that we respect that we thought would have helped us, they were afraid. Even Ogoni people that are senior Customs officers ran away.
“And this is just an art work. Non-motorized. So the question here is why are they afraid of an artwork? And if they can waive billions of dollars for people like Dangote, is it an artwork donated for struggle that people are beginning to play drama with?
“We feel that the world should begin to know because we had been handling this matter with kid gloves.”
“The bus is a living memorial that was donated in honour of Ken by some activists in the UK.
“That bus has been in the UK moving from one city to another and during our visit to the UK two years ago, we pleaded with the owners that this thing was not meant to be in London forever. That it was planned that at some point it will move to its permanent abode in Nigeria which is Ogoni. And they agreed that ok the 20th anniversary will be the best time to move it,” Akpobari said.
Mr. Henshaw disclosed that an elevated pavement had already been created for the bus at the Ken Saro-Wiwa Memorial Centre in Bori, an Ogoni community in Rivers State.
”We are trying to use this bus as a bridge, as a point of solidarity, as a point of commitment that whatever ills was committed, that we can fix this,” said Mr. Henshaw.
“The bus is more than just an artefact. It’s a symbol of brotherhood, an edifice that represents the global solidarity with the people of Ogoniland.
”We intend to make the inside of that bus a resource centre that will inspire different people who intend to carry out struggles for human and environmental justice just the way Ken Saro-Wiwa did,” he maintained.
How Ken Saro Wiwa Was Murdered
The Abacha regime setup a special tribunal headed Justice Ibrahim Auta along with the Kaduna-based prosecutor—Joseph Bodunrin Daudu after falsely accusing Saro-Wiwa of orchestrating the death of four Ogoni elders. After prolonged detention, abuse, torture and intimidation of Mr. Wiwa’s counsels by the Abacha regime, the panel sentenced Saro-Wiwa and eight Ogoni activists to death by hanging for a crime they never committed.
Saro-Wiwa was defended by the late human rights lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN and Femi Falana, SAN. The late environmental activist and lawyer, Oronto Douglas, the youngest lawyer on the team, was also on the defense team. Fawehinmi and his team were denied entry into the venue of the tribunal’s proceedings and denied the rights to confer with the defendants. Auta denied all motions/application for continuances in a case involving capital offenses.
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The Abacha regime swiftly ratified the tribunal’s verdict and thereafter murdered Saro-Wiwa and the eight activists before the period allowed for an appeal had elapsed. This happened in defiance of calls by the international community, particularly groups like Amnesty International for their lives to be spared.
To add further pain to the families of the executed men, their bodies were subsequently dissolved in sulphuric acid by the Abacha regime.
The execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and four other Ogoni elders, led to Nigeria’s suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations, which lasted for over three years. Shell Petroleum Development Company (SDPC) later paid out $15.5 million as compensation over its role in collaborating with the Abacha government in human rights violations in the deaths of Saro-Wiwa and his kinsmen.
Vigil on the 17th anniversary of the murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa and 4 other Ogoni elders.
Shell has not recovered from the severe public relations backlash from its role in the murder of the Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was a a popular author, playwright, and television producer and one of the most determined and articulate critics of the oil majors and advocates for environmental and economic justice for the Ogoni people of the Niger Delta.
Buhari served in the Abacha government as de factor petroleum minister in the role of Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF). Abacha’s despotic regime was also one of the most corrupt occasioned by brazen looting of the treasury. Abacha has been accused of looting over N100 Billion from Nigeria’s treasury.
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Close to a billion dollars looted by Abachi and his cronies have been returned to Nigeria from foreign accounts around the world. Former President Goodluck Jonathan has been credited with “silently” working to recover the stolen funds by the Abacha regime.
