Ogoni widows drag Shell to court, demand compensation, apologies

With the help of the Amnesty International, widows of four of the nine men executed by Nigeria’s military regime in 1995, have dragged Royal Dutch Shell to court for alleged complicity in the military crackdown that led to the killing of their husbands.

The four litigants are: Esther Kiobel, Victoria Bera, Blessing Eawo and Charity Levula, who are asking for compensation as well as apologies from Shell.

However, in the civil lawsuit, filled on their behalf by human rights lawfirm, Prakken d’Oliveira, with the support of Amnesty International, no specify amount was mentioned for the compensation that they were seeking.

According to the writ filed in a court in The Hague, the plaintiffs alleged that the
Nigerian military cracked down heavily on local opposition to oil production by a Shell joint venture in the Niger Delta in the early 1990s.

It reads in part: “Shell and the military regime formed an alliance in the events leading to the deaths of the Ogoni 9.

“Their relationship was one of mutual dependence: the Nigerian state was dependent on the income from oil that Shell generated; in turn, Shell was dependent on the benevolence and protection of the regime to pursue its activities in Nigeria and in this way realise a substantial part of its turnover.”

The four widows are further asserting that Shell provided support to the military in the crackdown that ultimately led to the executions of their breadwinners, among others known as the “Ogoni 9.”

But Shell, the largest oil producers in Nigeria, has maintained that it was not involved in the executions of the said people, thereby referring all inquiries on that to the government’s response to the incessant unrest in the region.

In a tacit statement, the oil firm said: “We have always denied, in the strongest possible terms, the allegations made by the plaintiffs in this tragic case.

“SPDC (Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria) did not collude with the authorities to suppress community unrest and in no way encouraged or advocated any act of violence in Nigeria. In fact, the company believes that dialogue is the best way to resolve disputes.”

But in 2009, Shell agreed in an out-of-court settlement in the United States to pay $15.5 million in damages to a group of relatives of the nine.

It would be recalled that a similar lawsuit at the United States’ Supreme Court was lost in 2013 when the apex court ruled that the case could not be heard because the country did not have jurisdiction over the matter.

Several other cases are still pending in many foreign lands , including the UK, U.S. Netherlands, on environmental-related issues on oil spillage in the Niger Delta, with activists demanding compensations from the company.