Director of the Abuja School of Social and Political Thought, Dr. Sam Amadi, has offered a striking recollection of the tense legal and political maneuvers that surrounded the trial of late environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, revealing that human rights advocates deliberately “pushed the state to an error” during the process.
Speaking in an interview on Arise News, Dr. Amadi narrated how he and other legal minds worked to expose flaws in the government’s handling of Saro-Wiwa’s prosecution under the regime of General Sani Abacha. According to him, their actions revealed the state’s premeditated intention to execute the Ogoni leader despite evidence that should have exonerated him.
“We pushed the state to error, because he was cleared, the manifest intent was to hang Ken Saro-Wiwa,” Amadi said. “We pushed them to an error, we withdrew.”
Dr. Amadi explained that by compelling the authorities to make judicial missteps, activists hoped to highlight the injustice of the trial and strengthen international advocacy against the planned execution. However, despite these efforts, Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders were executed in 1995, an event that drew global condemnation and led to Nigeria’s temporary suspension from the Commonwealth.
Ken Saro-Wiwa, founder of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), was a fierce critic of environmental degradation in the Niger Delta caused by oil exploration. His trial and execution became symbols of resistance against state repression.
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