10 June 2009 | News | Human rights | Extractive industries
Guilty
Shell pays USD 15.5 million compensation to family of activists murdered in Nigeria
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After several years of legal battles, British-Dutch company Royal Dutch Shell was forced to pay 15.5 million dollars to the family of activists murdered by the Nigerian dictatorship in 1995. The families had accused the oil company of complicity in their deaths.
Among the activists murdered by the dictatorship that took place in Nigeria in the 1990s was the renowned writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, founder of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, established in 1990 to protest against the pollution caused by oil companies in the territories of the Ogoni People.
Saro-Wiwa led the protests and was the spokesperson for the movement, which caused him to be persecuted and arrested several times, until the regime ordered his execution under false charges of murder, through a judicial process which didn´t allow him to defend himself.
In prison, the poet wrote an argument for his defense which was silenced by the Nigerian dictatorship.
"In my innocence of the false charges I face here, in my utter conviction, I call upon the Ogoni people, the peoples of the Niger delta, and the oppressed ethnic minorities of Nigeria to stand up now and fight fearlessly and peacefully for their rights. History is on their side. God is on their side.” , read part of Saro-Wiwa´s text.
The writer´s son was among the families of the victims that held the accusation against Shell, which was supported by a campaign called Shell Guilty, made up by the environmentalist federation Friends of the Earth, Oil Change International and the Remember Saro-Wiwa Project.
The organizations considered that the compensation Shell was forced to pay set an important precedent for other transnational corporations, which should be accountable for their activities in the developing countries.
Elizabeth Bast, International Program Director for Friends of the Earth US –country where the suit against Shell was filed – stated that this case is not the only one being carried out due to the dangerous activity of the British-Dutch oil company in the Niger Delta.
“Shell will be dragged from the boardroom to the courthouse, time and again, until the company addresses the injustices at the root of the Niger Delta crisis and puts an end to its environmental devastation,” said Elizabeth Bast. “Communities, human rights lawyers and activists will continue to demand justice with the same determination and hope shown by Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni people.”
