Three decades after his execution sparked global outrage, activist Ken Saro-Wiwa has been pardoned.
With eight other campaigners, Saro-Wiwa was convicted of murder, then hanged in 1995 by the then-military regime. Nigeria was subsequently suspended from the Commonwealth.
According to the BBC, many believed the activists were being punished for leading protests against the operations of oil multinationals, particularly Shell, in Nigeria’s Ogoniland. Shell has long denied any involvement in the executions.
Famously, democratic South Africa’s first president Nelson Mandela decried the execution, saying that “this heinous act by the Nigerian authorities flies in the face of appeals by the world community for a stay of execution. It also puts into question the commitment of the Nigerian military regime to the democratisation of Nigerian society.”
All nine executed activists − Saro-Wiwa, Barinem Kiobel, John Kpuinen, Baribor Bera, Felix Nuate, Paul Levula, Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, and Daniel Gbokoo − were among dozens who received pardons as part of Nigeria’s annual Democracy Day.
The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop), which was formerly led by Saro-Wiwa, called the pardon a “courageous act”, though noted that the pardon implied wrongdoing, while in reality “no crime ever took place”.
Saro -Wiwa, one of Nigeria’s leading authors, led the Ogoni people in peaceful demonstrations against Shell and other oil companies. The Nigerian government responded by brutally cracking down on the protesters. The Ogoni Nine were subsequently found guilty by a secret military tribunal of the murder of four Ogoni chiefs.
In 2021 a Dutch court ordered Shell to compensate farmers for spills that contaminated swathes of farmland and fishing waters in the Niger Delta. The company agreed to pay more than a hundred million dollars.
Earlier this year, lawyers representing two Ogoniland communities argued in London’s High Court that Shell must take responsibility for oil pollution that occurred between 1989 and 2020.
Shell denies wrongdoing and says spills in the region have been caused by sabotage, theft and illegal refining for which the company says it is not liable.
The trial is set for 2026.
Image by Chickenonline from Pixabay