Bennett Birabi yesterday criticised President Bola Tinubu’s decision to pardon the Ogoni 9 on Democracy Day (June 12).

Tinubu conferred national honours and granted a full state pardon to Ken Saro-Wiwa and the eight other members of the Ogoni 9, nearly three decades after their execution by the Gen. Sani Abacha government.

In an interview on Arise Television, Birabi, a former member of the Senate, said the Ogoni nine were not martyrs but “killers”, stressing that the President recognized killers.

Birabi, an Ogoni leader, said Tinubu was misled into pardoning them, claiming that they exploited the poverty of the people. The ex-legislator claimed that the Ogoni 9 carried out violence, using the people to achieve their aims.

He said: “I think the president was being misled and misadvised. What Ogoni needs is not recognition of killers. “The people who did the killing did not wear masks, so they were all known and seen by our people, and they were no strangers.

“For you to wake up and say they are martyrs, martyrs are people who fought for their people and died for a cause. “What was the cause they fought and died for? The same cause that we established MOSOP for was the same cause these people were fighting for.”