Saro-Wiwa’s Family Denies Reconciliation With Shell, Insists on Environmental Accountability in Ogoniland

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

The Ken Saro-Wiwa Foundation has insisted that until there is proper environmental accountability in Ogoniland there will be no resumption of oil exploration in the area

This was as the foundation has denounced what it described as a “stage-managed” effort to suggest reconciliation between the Ogoni people and Shell now renamed Renaissance, warning that no healing can begin until full political dialogue are pursued.

The foundation, in a statement signed by Dr. Owens Wiwa, said it was “alarmed” by a fake news item and circulated photographs claiming a new “record of restorative reconciliation and collaboration in Ogoniland”.

“The Ken Saro-Wiwa family and the Foundation totally disclaim this stage-managed incident,” Wiwa said. “The tree planting was not authorised, and Zina Saro-Wiwa was tricked into attending. We have since uprooted the offensive trees.”

Describing the event as a deliberate manipulation, the foundation accused the facilitator who he said has now been dismissed of arranging the stunt to falsely portray a rapprochement between the Wiwa family and Shell.

The foundation stressed that no reconciliation has taken place and none is under consideration until long-standing demands are met.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the family has not reconciled with Shell or its new name, Renaissance,” Wiwa insisted. “Both entities remain persona non grata in Ogoni.”

He reaffirmed that Shell must be held “fully accountable” for environmental devastation and the military crackdown that culminated in the killing of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists in 1995.

“Shell must clean up the Ogoni environment completely,” Wiwa said. “They must also be held accountable for the killings carried out by soldiers they financed to pacify the Ogoni people so oil drilling could resume.”

While acknowledging that the Federal Government–backed environmental cleanup by HYPREP is “a good first step,” the foundation said remediation alone is not enough.

Wiwa emphasised that sustainable peace requires political restructuring and resource control

“Healing cannot begin without a political dialogue to create a Bori State for the Ogoni people,” he noted. “The Nigerian State at a minimum owes the Ogoni people a pathway to autonomy.”

He warned that deceptive public relations tactics would not change the Ogoni stance.

“Stage-managed photography set up by agents of Shell and security operatives will not deceive our people,” Wiwa declared.

“The Ogoni will not capitulate to these obnoxious efforts.”

The foundation said it remains committed to justice, accountability and genuine dialogue not “manufactured imagery” as prerequisites for reconciliation after decades of conflict in the oil-rich region.