Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) has vowed to raise a legal team of lawyers in what he described as “to force the Nigerian government to provide environmental justice and compensation for the Niger Delta region.
Falana made the announcement while delivering the keynote address at the Ken Saro-Wiwa’s 30th Anniversary Memorial Lecture with the theme: ‘Ken Saro-Wiwa, The Man, His Legacies, Struggles and Challenges’, at the weekend in Rivers State.
He announced that the team would work to reclaim the region’s destroyed land, restore the integrity of affected communities, and secure social amenities.
The senior lawyer expressed outrage over the lack of basic amenities, including uninterrupted electricity, in the oil-rich region.
He emphasised that the neglect would no longer be tolerated, stating that the legal battle would be a testament to Saro-Wiwa’s legacy as a fighter for environmental justice.
He said: “We are gathered here together to resolve collectively on how to take the struggle forward concretely. Not just the struggle continues, but here today, we must pass some resolutions on how we will take this struggle forward.
“And I can tell you one of them, from what I have listened from here today, I am going to set up a team of lawyers who believe in environmental justice to initiate a major legal struggle to force the government of Nigeria to reclaim your land that has been destroyed, to reclaim your integrity and to give your communities all the social amenities that you deserve.”
