On this day, May 21 in 1994, four Ogoni chiefs were beaten to death by angry Ogoni youths.
According to reports, the victims’ names Edward Kobani, Alfred Badey, Samuel Orage, and Theophilus Orage: The latter two were Saro-Wiwa’s brothers-in-law, while Kobani was his longtime friend.
However, many people still believe that the killing of Ogboni chiefs were masterminded by then military government in order to nail some activists.
The military administrator of Rivers State called a press conference where he chided the press for being propagandist tool and later proclaimed that MOSOP was a terror group and that Saro-Wiwa was a “dictator who has no room for dissenting view”, before ending by accusing him of inciting the murders.
Activist Saro-~Wiwa and many others were later arrested and subjected to trial before the conclusion of police investigations.
As at the time of writing this piece, nobody knows the truth of what led to the death of the Ogoni chiefs.
Aside the torture in detention of Saro Wiwa, the harassment of his defence counsel; the military massacres in Ogoniland; the special tribunal (which included a soldier, Colonel Hameed Ali, on the three-member judging panel) that was convened to hear the civilian case; the hanging of Nordu Eawo, Saturday Dobee, John Kpuine, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Daniel Gbooko, Barinem Kiobel, Baribor Bera, and Ken Saro-Wiwa, there was no clear or true narration of what actually transpired. The killing of Ogoni chiefs remains a mystery.
