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By Nehi Igbinijesu.

Ogoniland recently got the national spotlight again; a damning United Nation Environmental Program (UNEP) report and, the subsequent declaration of secession by its indigenes due to government’s neglect of their land. Environmental damage in Ogoniland as a result of crude oil exploitation has worsened over the years with little or no attention from government and the International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating there. The Ogoni outcry was first heard when on the 10^th of November 1995, award-winning environmentalist, journalist and human-rights activist, Kenule Saro-Wiwa and eight other leaders of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (the Ogoni Nine) were executed by hanging at the hands of military personnel having been arrested and accused of incitement to murder four Ogoni elders. The nine were found guilty and sentenced to death by a government convened tribunal. While the tribunal sat, nearly all the defendants’ lawyers resigned in protest to the cynical rigging of the trial proceedings by the Abacha junta. Indeed many of the supposed witnesses later admitted to being bribed, threatened or manipulated by the Nigerian Government. The ‘Ogoni Nine’ executions put Nigeria in the glare of international community, sparking off a lot of outrage and an immediate suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations which was meeting in New Zealand at the time.

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This article was first published on 20th September 2012
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