Ogoni group rejects Tinubu’s pardon to Saro Wiwa, others
Ogoni Central Indigenous Authority, OCIA, has rejected the state pardon and national honour granted by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the late environmental activist Ken Saro Wiwa and 8 of his compatriots on June 12, 2025.
President of OCIA, Dr Goodluck Diigbo, who disclosed this in an online interview with Vanguard on Sunday, said the President’s gesture was misplaced, noting that the Ogoni-9 never committed any crime against the Nigerian state to warrant pardon rather than being exonerated from a crime they were wrongly accused of.
Speaking about the fear that prompted his instant rejection letter on June 12, 2025, Diigbo said he believes that President Tinubu is serious and wants to bring to a close that painful chapter of Nigeria’s past in a way to appease the Ogoni people.
But on his own volition without so much lobbying, Tinubu decided to exercise the power to pardon, which is primarily enshrined in the Constitution and is exercised by the President and State Governors, “but particularly in this instance, the president failed the scrutiny, despite his good intention”.
Diigbo said in a real sense, “Tinubu may run in to trouble with the use of his legitimate power as outlined in Section 175 of the 1999 Constitution if detractors go to court to nullify the Award aspect and we will be left with pardon without exoneration.”
He said this power allows the President to grant pardons, reprieves, respites, or remit punishments for offences created by an Act of the National Assembly but doesn’t anticipate, implicitly or explicitly, the granting of national awards, even if posthumous, for criminals.
“I surrender myself to exercise the scrutiny of a clear conscience and moral judgment and came to the conclusion that the exercise of the President’s pardon power in our case raises concerns of potential abuse, despite Tinubu’s good intention.
“This is because Ken Saro-Wiwa and my other eight brothers have not been exonerated. I feel the pardon and award can be challenged in a legitimate court of law in Nigeria, and Tinubu’s administration might easily lose as acting outside of the law or his powers as enshrined in Nigeria’s moribund 1999 Constitution.
“It will be too late for us to REJECT the PARDON and AWARD. For the Pardon and Award to become genuine, my brothers must be exonerated. And since the outdated 1999 Constitution has no such provision, it does not deny the President the power to construct an Exoneration Administrative Framework to provide for exoneration, through a resolution adopted by the Parliament, expressing regret, and profound apology for the Nigerian State Sanctioned Murder of the Ogoni and thousands of other unnamed heroes, who heard my voice and those of others, and then joined our just cause”.
Diigbo said that “Such an Exoneration Administrative Framework is a mechanism, whereby provisions of the Constitution would find comfort. I’ve started to pursue such a mechanism to make the Pardon and Award legitimate. Yes, I’m in touch with members of the House of Representatives, but can’t speak of the specifics in that regard”.
He stated that he had informed and accepted a resolution by the Ogoni General Assembly that “our people for now reject the Pardon and Award extended to Ken Saro-Wiwa and our eight other brothers.
“Our position is that Ken and my eight executive members hanged to death were pre-judged, without proper judicial process, and murdered. Our people will express genuine recognition of Tinubu’s good intention at the right time”
The OCIA President regretted that former President Goodluck Jonathan didn’t remember what Tinubu had started to do; instead, “he promoted criminal judicial operatives – people like Auta who concocted the Kangaroo Tribunal Hanging to Death Order. It was particularly disappointing, but I also realize the pressure that weighed heavily on former President Jonathan, especially from those who think that they have the right to Ogoni homeland”, Diigbo asserted.
Vanguard News
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