By: Felix Ikpotor
Family members of the late environmental rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa and 12 other Ogonis murdered during the General Sani Abacha military junta have protested their alleged exclusion by the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP).
The protested who besieged the HYPREP office in Port Harcourt in a peaceful protest lamented that despite the supreme sacrifices that the Ogoni-13 paid for the Ogoni struggle, members of their families have been left behind in the clean-up process as not anyone from the families has a job in the interventionist agency.
Mr Yira Wiwa, younger brother of Ken Saro-Wiwa who led the group told journalists on the sideline of the protest that the agency has deliberately neglected the families of the martyrs.
“The protest is in response to the deliberate neglect of the Ken Saro-Wiwa family and other families of the Ogoni 13 by the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Agency. Ever since HYPREP was created in 2016, it has never recognised the role played by these men that laid down their lives that made us to have this HYPREP today, so we are protesting and asking them to recognised the Ogoni-13 families as critical stakeholders in the Ogoni clean-up project,” he said.
Another protester, Tuka Nordu Eewo said the protest became necessary so as to draw the attention of the public and the Federal Government to the hardship being faced by members of the families if the Ogoni-13.
“Since the death of our fathers- the Ogoni-13, HYPREP is the first achievement to the Ogoni people and no member of the thirteen families is working in HYPREP even a cleaner and people have been there eating our fathers sweat without considering the families of the Ogoni-13, so today we are doing a protest to draw the attend of the federal government, the minister of environment and the Project Coordinator to consider the sacrifices of our heroes,” he stated.
It was gathered that Coordinator of the interventionist agency, Dr. Ferdinand Giadom agreed to have a meeting with leaders of the protesting families.
