10,000 Hold Candlelight Vigil In Port Harcourt for Ken Saro-Wiwa
Posted: November 10, 2011 - 17:50
Ken Saro-Wiwa
By SaharaReporters, New York

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An estimated 10,000 people from the Ogoni, Ijaw, Yoruba, Hausa, Ikwerre, and other communities from different parts of the state and beyond last night in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, took over major roads in the city in a mournful and solemn candle light procession to commemorate the 16th anniversary of the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa, Nigeria’s famous writer and activist and his other colleagues.

The men were hanged 16 years ago, by the military government of the late General Sani Abacha and Lt. General Jeremiah Useni, who will at the weekend be honoured with the Commander of the Order of the Nigeria (CON) award by the Goodluck Jonathan government.

Recent human rights reports have also implicated Royal Dutch Shell, the Anglo-Dutch multinational oil company, in the murders carried out by the brutal military dictatorship despite international appeals.

The demonstration started at about 10.00 pm from No. 24, Aggrey Road (Saro-Wiwa’s home in the heyday of the Ogoni struggle fondly referred to as Ogoni). The demonstrators were addressed by Michael Kanikpo, the chairman of the Ogoni Civil Society Platform (OCSP).

Mr. Kanikpo a lawyer who benefitted from the late Saro-Wiwa’s philanthropy, told the huge crowd in an emotion-laden voice, “ I thank you all, I am still shocked that [despite] November 10, 1995, when Abacha and Shell put off the light, today we can still have many lights to light the way. We have come not only to respect our fallen hero, but to continue the struggle he and others were killed for ”.

He urged participants to be peaceful and order during the procession, and that victory is near.
The thousands in attendance were clad in black attires. In their hands they carried white candles, and there was much singing, beating of drums, clapping of hands and dancing by the old and the young, and many women and children who participated in the march.

The Saro-Wiwa activists marched through the major Agrey Road in the southern part of the city to the Port Harcourt prisons where 32-year-old Goodluck Jack Tambari, one of the arrow heads of the movement spoke. “This is a yearly ritual,” he said, and then, pointing at the enormous wards of the prison, he lamented, “It was here that our mentor (Saro-Wiwa) was humiliated and killed. This prison is cursed for hosting the evil drama.’

Other speakers heaped curses on the Nigerian government and Shell, and they chanted such songs as, “Saro-Wiwa don’t you worry, Saro-Wiwa, don’t you worry, if you die in the battlefield we shall meet again;” and “How many Ogonis Shell go kill, how many Ogoni Shell go kill.”

The multitude then moved to the Port Harcourt cemetery where, following their hangings at the prisons, the men, including Saturday Doobee, Nordu Eawoo, Daniel Gbokoo, Paul Levura, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, John Kpuinen and Barinem Kiobel, who complete the “Ogoni 9,” were buried.

Michael Gbarale, the Project Officer of the CEHRD’s Niger Delta Child’s Rights Watch, praised the dead Ogoni activists. With tears gushing from his eyes, he said, “We shouldn’t mourn our departed comrades; we are celebrating their death. Their death should strengthen us to continue from where they stopped. We are celebrating them because they died for a noble cause. We shall all die, but how we die is what matters.”

The parade ended around 3.31 am this morning at No. 24 Agrey Road, and the protesters dispersed. Our correspondent who monitored the remembrance procession noted that this year’s event was much bigger than previous ones, indicating increasing awareness of their history by the people. All over Ogoni and beyond, similar activities and lectures will also take place.

In a related matter, the Eleme-based Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD) in Rivers State, a non-governmental organisation, in conjunction with one of its leading supporters, the London-based Amnesty International (AI) was this morning at the Conference Hall of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Abuja scheduled to launch a report, “The True Tragedy - Delays and Failures in Tackling Oil Spills in The Niger Delta”.

The launch was expected to will bring together members of the press, NGOs, community people, embassy officials, government representatives and others. The 50-page report reveals the enormous devastation caused by two major oil spills which took place in Bodo-City in the Gokana Local Government Area of Ogoni in 2008. They have never been cleaned up.

Meanwhile, SaharaReporters is in possession of an October 29 letter written by The Ken Saro-Wiwa Foundation to the Director-General of the State Security Services (SSS) and copied the National Security adviser, signed by Dr. Owens Wiwa.

In the letter, the foundation threatens to sue Andrew Iyayi, the Bayelsa State director of the SSS who in a recent lecture in the state capital Yenogoa, accused Saro-Wiwa of having a standing army and a designed flag, and was working with Britain to secede from the Federal Republic of Nigeria.


http://saharareporters.com/news-page/10000-hold-candlelight-vigil-port-harcourt-ken-saro-wiwa

May his soul rest in peace!

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkDgnVJa7SU[/flash]

Some people may be offended about my opinion, but I honestly think the man deserved his death. It still ranks as the sweetest form of poetic justice I've ever seen.

And this goes out to the cowardly you-know-who's, who still play 'houseboy' to the illiterate you-know-who's. . .
Well. . . Your time is coming

The most laughable crap about Ken Saro Wiwa is that he was a real estate business mogul in Port Harcourt. I readily ask myself, do these people know what real estate is about in Nigeria. I guess these ninnies have completely forgotten about abandon property in Port Harcourt and one of the big beneficiaries of such national splitting policy.

Areosapien:

Some people may be offended about my opinion, but I honestly think the man deserved his death. It still ranks as the sweetest form of poetic justice I've ever seen.

Areosapien:

And this goes out to the cowardly you-know-who's, who still play 'houseboy' to the illiterate you-know-who's. . .
Well. . . Your time is coming

, easy now boss