Saro-Wiwa Case Payout by Shell

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Tuesday June 09, 2009 01:07

by Cathar

In the landmark case in New York Shell have agreed tp payout $15m dollars settlement to realtives of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the other Ogoni nine and others killed in Nigeria.

Ken Saro-Wiwa

Shell to pay out $15.5m over Saro-Wiwa killing

Shell has agreed to pay $15.5m (€12m) in settlement of the legal action taken by the families of the activist/writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other leaders of the Ogoni tribe of southern Nigeria.
It’s a breakthrough case for human rights making a multinational accountable for its actions. They made the payment without admitting liability to avoid deatails of the evidence against them emerging in Court.
The settlement follows intensive negotiation by the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights .
It vindicates the stand taken by Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr, over the last decade and more to win justice for his father. Persistence pays.

A sum of $5m will be used to set up a trust called Kiisi - meaning "progress" in the Ogoni Gokana language - to support educational, community and other initiatives in the Niger delta.

Among the documents lodged with the New York court was a 1994 letter from Shell in which it agreed to pay a unit of the Nigerian army for the recovery of a truck. which resulted in the death of one Ogoni man and others injured. The aim was to motivate “future assignments".
Shell's involvement in the oil-rich Niger delta extends back to 1958. It remains the largest oil business in Nigeria, owning some 90 oil fields across the country..

The Ogoni People have been protesting in a non violent way for over two decades against Shell, for the destruction of their way of life and their environment through jungle clearance Gas flares and oil leakage.. Ken Saro Wiwa was one of the leaders of the movement who paid with his life for his part in the campaing. He was hanged with eight other Ogoni on trumped up charges on the 10th November 1995, Like Willie Corduff he was the recipient of the Goldman Enviromental Prize.

“Shell is guilty. Despite this victory, justice will not be served in Ogoni and throughout the Delta until the gas flares are put out, the spills cleaned up, and the military stops protecting the oil companies and starts serving the people,” said Steve Kretzmann, Executive Director of Oil Change International. “This issue will not be solved until these legitimate grievances of the community are addressed.”

This is not the end of court action against Shell who have still to face court in Holland for the pollution in Nigeria.

Never Forget the Ogoni Nine:
Ken Saro-Wiwa,Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel, and John Kpuine. Hanged by a corrupt Nigerian Government to facilitate Shell on the 10th November 1995.