Shell’s past sins in Nigeria catching up with the oil giant at last
The recent UK Supreme Court judgement represents a major defeat for Shell after decades of evading legal retribution for its evil plunder and pollution in Nigeria.
The crusading solicitors Leigh Day (London) – the scourge of errant corporations, brought the action against Shell on behalf of Nigerian communities impacted over many years by Shell’s horrific environmental legacy in Nigeria.
My help was sought by Leigh Day in bringing the action after Leigh Day discovered “invaluable” information on my website royaldutchshellplc.com.
The first approach came not directly from Leigh Day but from a global organisation acting on their behalf. Fears were expressed that Shell was engaged in espionage activity directed at the global organisation.
This was not surprising bearing in mind a The Sunday Times front-page lead-story revealing that a serving secret service agent working on a freelance basis for Hakluyt, the private spy firm intimately connected with Shell, had been engaged in related undercover operations in Nigeria for Shell.
An initial meeting with the global organisation led to a meeting with Leigh Day.
The meetings took place at my home in Colchester UK.
I supplied information to Leigh Day and also put them into contact with some of my Shell sources, including a former spook at the top of Shell Global Security. He was appalled by Shell’s activities in Nigeria, which were totally at odds with Shell’s claimed business principles.
I played a small but hopefully useful part in what must have been a huge project for Leigh Day, for which they duly deserve great credit.
Shell first complained about my Internet-based campaign against the oil giant’s lack of business ethics in March 1995. Decades later I have built an online repository of over 60,000 articles relating to Shell, all freely available to anyone seeking information about Shell, including articles from pre-WW2 years, when Shell was in bed with Hitler.
I am also involved in the current litigation against Shell in the Netherlands arising from the murder of the Ogoni 9, including Ken Saro Wiwa and Dr Barinem Kiobel.
Esther Kiobel, the widow of Dr Kiobel is the lead claimant. Channa Samkalden of the Dutch human rights law firm Prakken d’Oliveira is representing Esther and three other Ogoni 9 widows. The law firm and the acclaimed human rights organisation Amnesty International have kindly acknowledged my involvement in bringing the case. (See Writ of Summons in English and Dutch served on Shell 28 June 2017 – copy obtained from US Pacer public electronic court records). Esther generously said on 28 April 2019, that the Dutch case would not have happened without my help.
This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.