Aggrey Road is a major east-west arterial road located within the Old Township district in South Port Harcourt in Rivers State, Nigeria. It is well known for its growing economic activity and consists of predominantly commercial office buildings and retail outlets, only a small number of churches and educational establishments can be found on this road. [1] [2]
Rivers State, also known simply as Rivers, is one of the 36 states of Nigeria. According to census data released in 2006, the state has a population of 5,198,716, making it the sixth-most populous state in the country. Its capital and largest city, Port Harcourt, is economically significant as the centre of Nigeria's oil industry. Rivers State is bounded on the South by the Atlantic Ocean, to the North by Imo, Abia and Anambra States, to the East by Akwa Ibom State, and to the West by Bayelsa and Delta states. It is home to three major indegenious ethnic groups: Kalabari, Ikwerre and Ogoni. The people from Rivers State are known as "Riverians".
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Prominent landmarks include the Port Harcourt Cemetery, [3] former office block of Ken Saro-Wiwa, [1] St. Mary's Catholic Church [4] and the Post Office. [5]
Port Harcourt Cemetery is a city-owned and operated public cemetery located along Aggrey Road in the Old Township district of Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital. It is the oldest cemetery still in use in the city and is notable as the burial site of activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and his associates. It also contains one commonwealth burial of the 1939 - 1945 World War.
Kenule Beeson "Ken" Saro-Wiwa was a Nigerian writer, television producer, environmental activist, and winner of the Right Livelihood Award for "exemplary courage in striving non-violently for civil, economic and environmental rights" and the Goldman Environmental Prize. Saro-Wiwa was a member of the Ogoni people, an ethnic minority in Nigeria whose homeland, Ogoniland, in the Niger Delta has been targeted for crude oil extraction since the 1950s and which has suffered extreme environmental damage from decades of indiscriminate petroleum waste dumping. Initially as spokesperson, and then as president, of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Saro-Wiwa led a nonviolent campaign against environmental degradation of the land and waters of Ogoniland by the operations of the multinational petroleum industry, especially the Royal Dutch Shell company. He was also an outspoken critic of the Nigerian government, which he viewed as reluctant to enforce environmental regulations on the foreign petroleum companies operating in the area.
