After two decades of seeking justice, the District Court of the Hague ruled in May 2019 that the case could be heard in The Netherlands. In the ongoing case, the Court is assessing the role that Shell played in the ‘Ogoni Nine’ – among them my husband – being sentenced to death and executed.
Ogoni
Nigeria’s Ogonis Divided Over Resuming Oil Production
By Chris Stein – Voice of America, 06 March 2015
Nigeria’s Ogonis Divided Over Resuming Oil Production
KEGBARA DERE, NIGERIA—
Oil once flowed in Ogoniland, as it does from wells throughout the creeks and swamps of Nigeria’s Niger Delta region.
But in 1993, the Ogoni people said enough. Leaking pipelines were polluting the fields they farmed and the waterways they fished.
Oil giant Shell was forced to pull out of Ogoniland that year in the face of protests led by the charismatic Ken Saro-Wiwa, head of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, or MOSOP. He was hanged two years later by the military dictatorship that ran Nigeria, in a move widely seen as retaliation for his activism.
Bringing major corporations to book for their crimes
This article appeared in print under the headline “Nowhere to run…”
29 April 2013 by Fred Pearce
- Book information
- Just Business: Multinational corporations and human rights by John Gerard Ruggie
- Published by: Norton
- Price: £14.99
EXTRACT
Other examples he discusses include the toxic solvents and child labour used to make fashionable Nike sportswear in the 1990s, and the 60-year battle of the impoverished Ogoni people in Nigeria against Royal Dutch Shell, whose shareholders made billions as the Ogoni forests were poisoned by oil.
Kiobel v. Shell ruling: serious setback to Ogoni in Niger Delta
The US Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit against the Royal Dutch Shell Petroleum Company brought by alleged human rights victims. The ruling, which was handed down last Wednesday, is seen as a serious setback for the Ogoni community in the Niger Delta, who alleged gross human rights abuses during the mid-1990s by the military government in power at the time.
By Joe Hitchon, Washington, D.C.: Published on : 22 April 2013 – 5:00am | By RNW Africa Desk (Photo: AFP)
In addition, the decision essentially cuts off the US courts system from those attempting to redress wrongs allegedly committed by multinational companies, particularly in developing countries.
Has Shell Unlawfully Resumed Oil Operation In Ogoni?
By Ben Ikari, Director, African Cultural and Fundamental Rights Council (AFCRC-USA): 26 February 2013 Last updated at 08:02 CET
Royal Dutch Shell (RDS) may be set for a serious crisis and bloodletting in Ogoni, Nigeria. Information reaching the African Cultural and Fundamental Rights Council (AFCRC-USA) has it that the oil company, which happens to be the foremost in Nigeria for over 50 years, have been using heavily armed soldiers to clear the Ebubu Eleme oilfield in Ogoni. The corporation is also said to be engaging in other activities villagers believe could be oil extraction against the people’s wishes.
Self-Government for Ogoni Was Overdue, Says Goodluck Diigbo
PRESS STATEMENT BY MOSOP MEDIA:
Self-Government for Ogoni Was Overdue, Says Goodluck Diigbo
4 August 2012
MOSOP President/Spokesman, Dr. Goodluck Diigbo has been speaking on the reason for the urgency behind the Ogoni declaration of self-government to enforce the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
“The urgency behind the declaration is that self-government for Ogoni was overdue in view of many important issues bordering on indigenous rights of the Ogoni people being tampered with now. The UNEP Ogoni Report is one out of many,” Diigbo explained.
Diigbo stated that:“The Ogoni declaration of self-government now guarantees the Ogoni people the right to participate in decision-making in all matters which would affect their rights, through representatives chosen by Ogonis in accordance with own procedures, as well as to maintain and develop all our own indigenous decision-making institutions, which we started to set up since 2011.”
Ogoni Autonomy Gets D-Day
General Assembly sets 2nd August 2012 for Ogoni Political Autonomy
The date to decide the destiny of Ogoni people in southern Nigeria is set to be on the 2nd of August, 2012.
It means Ogonis will observe every 2nd of August each year as a day of internal independence in Nigeria.
This will be the first time that the Ogoni people will exercise self-determination in almost 111 years.
The General Assembly of the Ogoni people voted today, July 31, 2012 to approve the 2nd of August as a part of the nationwide general conference on the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Nigeria: Ogoni Is Poised To Enforce United Nations Declaration
STATEMENT ISSUED BY MOSOP MEDIA
A national conference to groom newly elected representatives on how to enforce the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples will open in Bori on the 31st of July, 2012.
The conference was originally scheduled for July 22, 2012, but was shifted to include all Ogonis as participants.
The conference will feature workshops, roundtables and dialogue on economic, social, political and security issues as well as traditional displays.
Over 2,500 leaders have been elected to enforce the rights of indigenous peoples at the village level, while 120 representatives secured mandate to run 33 newly created administrative districts. 24 custodians of customs and traditions were also elected to take their seats at the central level as law makers.
Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co: Harvard Law School Intervention
U.S. Supreme Court: Harvard Lawyers Reflect Spirit of American Revolution, says Dr. Goodluck Diigbo
MOSOP President and Spokesman, Dr. Goodluck Diigbo has welcomed the filing by the Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic of an amicus curiae brief with U.S. Supreme Court in the case, Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. as a significant legal American enlightenment action.
Diigbo said: “This Harvard amicus curiae brief will remind all American citizens and the United States government of the very core values that led to the American Revolution, which provoked a series of social, political, and intellectual transformations that ultimately rejected colonial tactics in order to break free from the British Empire.”
Ogonis Elect Leaders for Autonomous Authority
Investigation finds shocking levels of pollution from oil spills in Ogoniland, even at spill sites that companies claim to have cleaned up.
Photo of oil spill, taken during February 2010 UNPO visit to Ogoniland
Ogonis Elect Leaders for Autonomous Authority
Over 2,500 candidates vie for self-government offices to administer Ogoni affairs
Ogonis begin voting on the 7th of June, 2012 to elect leaders of the Ogoni Central Indigenous Authority (OCIA) to pave way the inherent authority of the Ogoni people to govern themselves within their own boarders. All Ogonis people throughout the world are free to contest.
British Prime Minister David Cameron Acting Dangerously Against Nigeria
MOSOP STATEMENT ISSUED 28 May 2012
British Prime Minister David Cameron Acting Dangerously Against Nigeria
MOSOP President/Spokesman, Dr. Goodluck Diigbo has described British Prime David Cameron’s government amicus brief in the Ogoni case of Kiobel v Shell in the United States of America as an ill-advised and short-sighted colonial tactics.
Diigbo said the prime minister’s action has deeper implications for destabilizing Nigeria. “What it means is that victims of oil operations that have no way of seeking equity and justice should take the law into their hands instead to use the legitimate judicial process available in the United States for requisite redress against violations by multinational oil companies in which Cameron’s government has vested interest,” Diigbo explained.
AFCRC-USA Congratulates Ogoni Environmental Protection Agency
By Ben Ikari
The African Cultural and Fundamental Rights Council (AFCRC), USA congratulates the newly formed Ogoni Environmental Protection Agency (OGEPA) for its emergence at a time Ogoni is at environmental crossroads.
We especially thank the new agency for its vision aimed at achieving broad-based tree planting throughout Ogoni territory. This is a great feat that should receive the appreciation and support of local, national, regional and international groups or organizations and governments.
Nigeria: Shell Shuts Office As Ogonis Protest Pollution
Shell Shuts Office As Ogonis Protest Pollution
By Bashiru Abdullahi, 30 April 2012
Port Harcourt — The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) shut down its office in Rumoumasi area of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, as hundreds of Ogonis and environmental activists staged a protest at the weekend.
The protesters, who carried placards with various inscriptions such as, “Shell clean up Niger Delta”, “Implement UNEP report”, “Ogoni say no to Shell”, among others, marched to the entrance of the Shell office, calling on it to clean up pollution in the Niger Delta region.
Pres Jonathan, Nigerian Politicians Blocking Ogoni Clean-Up
Of course, $hell has over the years refuted allegations of environmental degradation in Ogoni. The company has nowhere to hide from this environmental catastrophe that is killing Ogonis faster than not. Although my source says $hell is willing to deposit the take-off money, it is also common with the company taking undue advantage of the envy and division, greed and corruption in Nigeria.
Rivers without water
No Shell person or NNPC has come here in respect of the report. But as I talk to you, they are drilling. The same Nigerian Army and police that are supposed to protect the Nigerian people will carry them to go and put more benzene (into the environment). If we take laws into our hands, you hear (restiveness) and violence. The accusations have been put before Shell in an email for weeks, but the company did not respond.
Ogoni Establishes Environmental Protection Agency
Graphics from Guardian newspaper article: Unloveable Shell, the Goddess of Oil
PRESS STATEMENT ISSUED BY MOSOP: 26 December 2011
A measure to make sure that Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Royal Dutch/Shell and others face compelling action to hold them accountable for environmental crimes in Ogoni.
MOSOP President and Spokesman, Dr. Goodluck Diigbo said that the Ogoni people have learnt the hardest lesson that it was not the wisest thing to do, to allow petroleum operations in Ogoni without a formal Environmental Impact Assessment Study (EIAS).
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