State Pardon For Ogoni 9 Misguided;They Committed No Crime- CACOL

The Centre for Anti- Corruption and Open Leadership, CACOL, has said the state pardon granted the Ogoni Nine by President Bola Tinubu is misguided because they never committed any crime.

The group in a statement signed by its Director of Programmes, Tola Oresanwo, says what they deserve is exoneration.

The statement read; “We strongly condemn the recent announcement by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu during his address at the National Assembly, in which he declared a full state pardon for the late Ogoni Nine, renowned environmental and human rights activists including Ken Saro-Wiwa, who were unjustly executed by the Abacha regime in 1995.

“This so-called pardon is both historically inaccurate and morally unjust. The Ogoni Nine committed no crime. They suffered what can be called “State Murder”, hence the judgment of the tribunal that tried them ought to be quashed. After all, their only “offence” was standing up against environmental degradation, corporate exploitation, and systemic repression in the Niger Delta. They were peaceful advocates for justice and the environment, and their convictions and executions were the result of a sham trial universally condemned by the international community as a gross miscarriage of justice.

“A pardon implies guilt and absolution from wrongdoing. But in this case, there is nothing to forgive. The right step is to exonerate the Ogoni Nine,publicly acknowledge their innocence, apologize to their families and communities, and hold accountable those who orchestrated their judicial murder. Anything short of this continues the injustice.

“We call on President Tinubu and the Nigerian government to immediately rescind this inappropriate gesture and replace it with a full exoneration. Nigeria must rise above symbolic politics and take concrete steps to deliver restorative justice.

“Let the world remember: the Ogoni Nine were not criminals. They were martyrs for justice”, the statement said.