{"id":68245,"date":"2025-06-16T17:19:58","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T17:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=68245"},"modified":"2025-06-16T17:19:58","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T17:19:58","slug":"civil-society-group-faults-tinubus-pardon-of-ogoni-nine-demands-full-exoneration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/06\/16\/civil-society-group-faults-tinubus-pardon-of-ogoni-nine-demands-full-exoneration\/","title":{"rendered":"Civil Society Group Faults Tinubu\u2019s Pardon of Ogoni Nine, Demands Full Exoneration"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Njoku Chijioke<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), has criticised President Bola Tinubu\u2019s posthumous pardon of the late Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni men, describing the move as \u201cmorally unjust and factually inaccurate.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement on Monday, CACOL said the pardon implies guilt and falls short of delivering true justice.<\/p>\n

The group insists that the Ogoni Nine were victims of state-sponsored murder and must be fully exonerated, not merely pardoned.<\/p>\n

Tola Oresanwo, CACOL\u2019s Director of Administration and Programmes, stated that the men \u201ccommitted no crime\u201d and were executed unjustly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the Nigerian state owes them and their families is not a pardon, which suggests wrongdoing, but a complete exoneration.<\/p>\n

“The judgment of the tribunal that convicted them should be quashed,\u201d Oresanwo said.<\/p>\n

Last Thursday, President Tinubu granted a full posthumous presidential pardon to Ken Saro-Wiwa and the eight others, referring to them as national heroes.<\/p>\n

While the gesture has been welcomed by some, CACOL believes it does not go far enough to redress the historical injustice.<\/p>\n

The group called on the President to issue a formal apology to the families and communities affected, acknowledge the innocence of the slain activists, and hold accountable those who orchestrated what they described as a judicial murder.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe path to true reconciliation lies in restorative justice, not symbolic gestures,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

The debate continues over whether presidential pardons are adequate tools for correcting grave human rights abuses.<\/p>\n

For CACOL, only full exoneration can restore the honour of the Ogoni Nine and offer real justice to their loved ones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Njoku Chijioke The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), has criticised President Bola Tinubu\u2019s posthumous pardon of the late Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni men, describing the move as \u201cmorally unjust and factually inaccurate.\u201d In a statement on Monday, CACOL said the pardon implies guilt and falls short of delivering true justice. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":68246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,186],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68245"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68248,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68245\/revisions\/68248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}