A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Femi Falana, has vowed to convene a team of lawyers to begin a legal action against oil companies that have polluted and abandoned their host communities in the Niger Delta.
The human rights lawyer made this vow on Friday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, during the Ken Saro-Wiwa 30th Memorial Lecture, organised by a coalition of environmental civil society leaders
According to him, communities producing the oil that sustains Nigeria’s economy deserve to live comfortably with all basic amenities provided, not in poverty and neglect.
Bellnews reports that the event, put together by a coalition of environmental activists, was held in honour of the 84th posthumous birthday of late environmental and human-rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed alongside eight others 30 years ago for alleged treasonable felony and recently granted state pardon and honours.
The event also drew activists, policymakers and community leaders who renewed calls for environmental justice in the Niger Delta.
The senior lawyer explained that multinational oil companies have profited from Nigeria’s natural resources while leaving host communities in the Niger Delta impoverished and devastated.
Other speakers at the memorial, including Nnimmo Bassey, urged government agencies to hold defaulting oil firms accountable and prioritise a full cleanup of Ogoniland.
For civil society groups, the legacy of Ken Saro-Wiwa remains a rallying point for justice and environmental restoration across the Niger Delta.
They warned that anything short of calling for a halt to oil resumption talks in Ogoniland without extensive cleanup, would amount to wasting the sacrifice of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his comrades.