Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People
[6][12] Former World Bank Vice-President for Africa, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, estimated that $400 billion of Nigeria's oil revenue was stolen or misspent from 1960 to 1999.
[18] Beginning in the late 1950s, multinational oil companies began taking over land belonging to Indigenous farming and fishing communities in the Niger Delta, resulting in environmental devastation.
In describing the effects of these environmental damages upon his people, the President of MOSOP, Dr. Garrick Barile Leton stated in 1991 that, Lands, streams and creeks are totally and continually polluted; the atmosphere is for ever charged with hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide; many villages experience the infernal quaking of the wrath of gas flares which have been burning 24 hours a day for 33 years; acid rain, oil spillages and blowouts are common.
Owing to the constant and continual pollution of our streams and creeks, fish can only be caught in deeper and offshore waters for which the Ogoni are not equipped.
The mangrove tree, the aerial roots of which normally provide a natural and welcome habitat for many a sea food – crabs, periwinkles, mudskippers, cockles, mussels, shrimps and all – is now being gradually replaced by unknown and otherwise useless plants.
In July 1970, there was a major blow-out at the Bomu oil field in Ogoni, which continued for three weeks, causing widespread pollution and outrage.
P. Badom, of the Dere Youths Association, issued a letter of protest, stating:"Our rivers, rivulets and creeks are all covered with crude oil.
"[citation needed] The Iko people wrote to Shell in 1980 demanding "compensation and restitution of our rights to clean air, water and a viable environment where we can source for our means of livelihood".
[8] In 1987, when the Iko once again held a peaceful demonstration against Shell, the Mobile Police Force (MPF) destroyed 40 houses, and 350 people were made homeless.
Ken Saro-Wiwa initiated the idea of MOSOP and attracted a mix of educated Ogoni elites and chiefs, including its first president Dr. Garrick Barile Leton.
[30] Goodluck Diigbo, President of the National Youth Council of Ogoni People, (NYCOP) established seven of the ten affiliates that made up MOSOP.
MOSOP's first effort was the 1990 Ogoni Bill of Rights addressed to the federal government, the people of Nigeria, and as an appeal to the international community.
[4] They also stated that Shell bore “full responsibility for the genocide of the Ogoni.”[31] The Bill summaraised the sufferings of the Ogoni peoples and their political marginalisation and neglect by the government.
[11]In late October, 1990, protests at a Shell facility in the Umuechem community of Etche brought the situation in the Niger Delta to international attention.
In anticipation of the protests, Shell requested the presence of the paramilitary MPF, who killed approximately 80 unarmed demonstrators and destroyed or severely damaged 495 houses.
[31][8] A government inquiry later found that villagers posed no threat and concluded that the MPF's violence was in "reckless disregard for lives and property.”[31] From 1990 to 1993, MOSOP responded to the failure of previous petitions to elicit a response from the government or the oil companies by increasingly asserting their right to self-determination and their right to confront the oil companies directly.
[4] In 1992, the conflict escalated as MOSOP demanded that Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Chevron, and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), pay $10 billion in compensation to Ogoni people, immediately stop environmental degradation, and negotiate with Ogoni people to reach acceptable terms for further oil extraction.
By this act, the Ogonis shifted the focus of their actions from an unresponsive federal government to oil companies actively engaged in their own region.
[33] In January 1993, the national government responded by banning public gatherings and declaring that disturbances of oil production were acts of treason.
Rivers State Military Administrator Lt. Col. Dauda Komo did not wait for a judicial investigation to blame the killings on "irresponsible and reckless thuggery of the MOSOP element".
[36] On November 10, 1995, nine activists from the movement, Barinem Kiobel, John Kpunien, Baribor Bera, Saturday Dobee, Felix Nwate, Nordu Eawo, Paul Levura, and Daniel Gbokoo along Ken Saro-Wiwa, were hanged 10 days after being convicted by the Nigerian government on charges of "incitement to murder" of the four Ogoni leaders.
[37] In the final address to the military-appointed tribunal, Saro-Wiwa describes the actions of Shell Corporation as war crimes against the Ogoni People: I repeat that we all stand before history.
[41] On January 4, 1998, Ogoni national day, the Rivers State Internal Security Task Force (RVISTF), arrested dozens of activists and raided several villages.
Charges included human rights abuses against the Ogoni people in the Niger Delta, summary execution, torture, arbitrary arrest, and wrongful death.
[44] On November 10, 2014, MOSOP President Legborsi Saro Pyagbara, at the 19th anniversary commemoration of the "Ogoni Martyrs" held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, called on the federal government to clear the late activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and the other nine Ogoni people executed by General Sani Abacha's government for murder.
Pyagbara recalled that the UN, which monitored the trial of Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni Nine, observed that the returned verdict did not follow any known local or international standard.
[46] Compelling new evidence suggests the Nigerian military killed four Ogoni elders whose murders led to the execution of the playwright and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995.
