Ogoni activist Gani Topba will return to the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt on January 18 and 19, 2027, for the start of his trial on charges of terrorism, cybercrime and calls for the seizure of oil wells in Ogoniland. Justice Mohammed Turaki fixed the dates after Topba’s lawyers asked for more time to allow him recover from health complications they linked to his long detention. The Department of State Services, which is prosecuting the case on behalf of the Federal Government, did not oppose the request.
Topba, leader and spokesman of the Conscience of Ogoni People, regained his freedom at the weekend after the court granted him bail in the sum of ₦10 million, with two sureties in like sum. He had been held by the DSS since the court ordered his remand on August 19, a period of about eight weeks. He has pleaded not guilty to all four counts.
The charge sheet alleges that between May and August 2026, Topba campaigned for the forced takeover of oil wells in Ogoniland. The aim, according to the prosecution, was to pressure the Federal Government into excluding Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, now Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited, and its partners from future contracts in the area. He is also accused of producing and circulating a video on August 10 to malign the leadership of KAGOTE, the apex Ogoni socio-cultural body.
The DSS contends that the video was meant to undermine public order in Rivers State and risked reigniting the communal crisis that engulfed Ogoniland in 1994. A separate count, brought under Section 24(2)(a) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act 2015, alleges that he used computer networks to bully and harass KAGOTE President-General, Lesi Maol, and other executives, causing them to fear death or physical injury. His counsel, Golden Awi, had earlier told the court that the defence struggled to gain access to Topba while he was in DSS custody.
The case has moved slowly. A bail hearing fixed for September 3 stalled after Justice Turaki told the parties that his approval to sit as a vacation judge covered only plea taking, not bail or trial. The matter was later moved to another vacation judge, and Topba was returned to custody with no fresh date fixed, before bail was eventually granted.
It is not Topba’s first legal battle this year. He earlier filed a fundamental rights suit against the Nigeria Police Force, Maol and others, challenging his invitation, arrest and detention by the Anti-Cultism Unit of the Rivers State Police Command. In that suit, he questioned why the unit was investigating what he described as allegations bordering on defamation.
The prosecution sits in the middle of the most serious attempt in three decades to restart oil production in Ogoniland. Topba is a member of the Ogoni Dialogue Committee, the body set up after President Bola Tinubu directed the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, on January 21, 2025, to open talks with the Ogoni people. Oil production in the area has been suspended since 1993, when mass protests led by the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People forced Shell to withdraw.
The history behind the talks is painful. Four Ogoni chiefs were killed in Gokana in May 1994, and the military government of Sani Abacha later tried and hanged Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists in November 1995 over the killings, a decision that led to Nigeria’s suspension from the Commonwealth. In 2011, the United Nations Environment Programme documented widespread oil pollution in Ogoniland and recommended an initial clean-up fund of $1 billion, leading to the creation of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, which began work in 2016.
The current dialogue has divided Ogoni groups. KAGOTE, founded in 1947 to represent Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme local government areas, has asked Ribadu to investigate claims that some committee members invoked his office in relation to appointments and opportunities, while insisting it is not opposed to oil resumption. MOSOP President, Fegalo Nsuke, has backed the process and dismissed KAGOTE’s concerns. A communique from a MOSOP congress on June 13, read by former president Legborsi Pyagbara, warned that the talks had focused on oil at the expense of political exclusion and environmental justice.
Topba remains on bail until the trial opens in January. No final agreement on the resumption of oil production in Ogoniland has been made public.