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...For a better society... Saturday, December 11 2004 Vol 13 No.44 News Events Cover Issues Politics Foreign News The Art Ladies & Gentlemen Saturday Sports Panache Weekend Circuit Weekend Business Special Snap Shot Interview Family denies Saro-Wiwa’s re-burial REMAINS of the hanged Ogoni leader, Ken Saro-Wiwa, are yet to be re-buried, the family said yesterday. Date for the interment, the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) noted, could be supplied only by the family. Reacting to a report by a Lagos-based national daily (not Daily Champion), Mrs Veronica Wiwa, stepmother of the slain Ogoni leader told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that it was not possible to re-bury Ken’s remains without involving the Ogoni nation. The national daily had published a story last week purporting that the body of the late author and environmental activist was finally interred in his country home, Bane, nine years after his death. His corpse was exhumed after his execution in 1995 and taken overseas for forensic studies. Though the family members who spoke in Saro-Wiwa’s home town said they had received the bones of the late leader of MOSOP, the bones were never buried. Mrs. Wiwa, who was met at home while the father of the late author was said to be indisposed, said there was no way the remains would have been re-buried secretly. "It is true that Ken had said while alive that he preferred humble and low-key burial, but we cannot bury him and the entire Ogoni people will not be aware," she said. Also, Saro-Wiwa’s son, who shares his name Ken, said he was in Canada during the reported burial and wondered if such could be done in his absence. The family declined to comment on the whereabouts of the of Saro-Wiwa’s remains which they claimed to have collected from pathologists. Speaking with Daily Champion on phone, MOSOP leader, Mr Ledum Mitee described death as a sensitive matter, adding that only the Wiwas can fix a date for the author’s re-burial. MOSOP, he said, was in contact with the family and was waiting to be informed of the date so that the organisation would play the role expected of it. Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders were in 1995 hanged at the federal prisons in Port Harcourt, having been sentenced to death by a tribunal for allegedly killing four Ogoni prominent sons. His execution led to the slamming of economic sanctions on Nigeria by the European Union, the Commonwealth, the United States (U.S.) and other Western nations in 1996. � 2004 @ Champion Newspapers Limited (All Right Reserved). Powered By dnetsystems.net dnet�

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