I’ve travelled for miles, inspecting the lives and conditions of my fellow Ogonis and was shocked to find that most of the Ogoni people lived on less than $1 per day. The most shocking part was that our area also contributed about 20% of the nation’s oil revenue, but we were still languishing in poverty.

I once travelled to Eleme and was not surprised to see an oil refinery there. What saddened me was that the Ogonis were side-lined from employment, even though the corrupt and self-centred individuals who had pledged loyalty to the devil had access to jobs.

There was a time I heard some tidings about employment in then Shell work. Some individual was expected to perform some rituals and this included bringing a human head. Upon further investigation, it proved the news to be close to the truth.

But the reason behind such rituals remained a mystery to me. I thought maybe they wanted to turn us against each other or wanted to indirectly depopulate us for their selfish interest. They forgot that we cared about each other. And also about the strong oath of brotherhood that saw us survive the slave trade era without having any member of our group sold as a slave.

The Nigerian government recognised that what I was saying was the truth. They would wish that this truth was not told because they wanted to hoodwink the public. The people who were ruling Nigeria were cabals who were not interested in the progress of the country. They were only interested in the natural resources of the Ogoni people and our Eastern brothers.

Usually, I travelled a lot expecting to see change in Ogoni land, but I always came across polluted and dirty oil spills caused by the oil companies operating in our area. Sometimes, I came across soldiers and policemen in violation of human rights, like killing peaceful and harmless protesters. There was a time soldiers and policemen attacked villages, wiped them out, killing scores of people. The survivours fled their homes for safety and that was how the village became inhabited.

In some instances, women and girls were sexually molested and abused by soldiers and policemen. The government still turned a blind eye to it.

The Nigerian government issued a bill which was signed into law in 1979, that all land under the Nigerian territory belongs to the federal government. It was on the legal backing of this law that Abacha forcefully traded the Ogonis away from their homes. Southern Ogonis kingdoms were so angry that they all embarked on violent mass demonstration against oil companies in the year 1994.

On the 21st of May same year, soldiers and Mobile Police (MOPOL) men appeared in most Ogoni villages and began a killing spree.

On that day, four Ogoni chiefs, all on the conservative side of schism within MOSOP over strategy, were brutally murdered. I was denied entry to Ogoni land that fateful day, but was later arrested and charged with murder alongside eight other MOSOP stake holders.

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Tell us: Who should come to the aid of countries when they are invaded and people are being killed?