President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday at State House conferred the national honour of the Commander of the Order of the Niger on four Ogoni leaders killed in May, 1994 by a mob at Gionkoo, Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The four are Albert Badey, a former Secertary to Rivers State Government, Edward Kobani, a former Commissioner, Sam Orage, a former commissioner and Theophilus Orage, the elder brother of Sam Orage.
President Tinubu announced the awards when the Consultation Committee he set up to rally peace in Ogoniland submitted its report at State House, Abuja.
The move has been seen as part of healing process in Ogoniland that was invaded and devastated by the military in the 1990s after the Ogoni protested the destruction of their environment by oil companies.
During the occupation of Ogoni, more than 2,000 Ogoni people were killed and the Nigerian state charged and executed nine Ogoni leaders on trumped up charges after a trial that did not allow them room for appeal. Many other Ogoni had to flee the country to seek asylum elsewhere.
Oil production in Ogoniland has not resumed since then. And Ogoni people had insisted that they would not welcome any oil company, especially Shell, which they accused of being behind the massacre in Ogoni land.
Earlier this year, President Tinubu granted pardon to Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni executed in 1995. He also approved the establishment of a Federal University of Environmental Technology in Ogoniland and has been supporting the effort to restore damaged environment of Ogoni through Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP).
The Federal Government’s efforts have been seen as a move to resume oil and gas production in Ogoniland for badly needed foreign exchange earnings. But the Ogoni are however still divided over whether to welcome oil companies back to their land.
