Environmental activist Celestine Akpobari has rejected the presidential pardon granted posthumously to Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others by President Bola Tinubu, insisting that what is needed is full exoneration, not clemency.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Akpobari argued that Saro-Wiwa and his colleagues were wrongfully executed and committed no crime deserving of a pardon. He described the gesture as inadequate and misdirected.
President Tinubu, during an address to a joint session of the National Assembly, announced the posthumous pardon and conferred national honours on Saro-Wiwa and the other Ogoni activists who were executed in 1995 under the military regime of General Sani Abacha.
Akpobari emphasized that accepting a pardon implies guilt, which he says dishonours the legacy of the late environmentalist and his fellow campaigners.
