After more than a decade of legal battles, the Royal Dutch Shell oil company has agreed to pay an out-of-court settlement in a case in which it was accused of committing human rights abuses in collusion with Nigeria's former military government.
The case was due to go for trial next week in the United States. Instead, Shell will settle the case for U.S. $15.5 million. It will set up a $5 million trust to benefit local communities in Ogoni and make payments to the relatives of Ogoni activists who were executed or injured by the military regime of Sani Abacha in 1995. The most prominent among the activists was the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa.
Campaigners backing the case said the people of Ogoni believe the settlement to be a victory. But Shell denied involvement in any wrongdoing and the payout was part of a "process of reconciliation".
"Shell is guilty," said Steve Kretzmann, executive director of Oil Change International, an American group which promotes clean energy. "Despite this victory, justice will not be served in Ogoni and throughout the Delta until the gas flares are put out..."
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International environmental groups are campaigning to stop oil companies from carrying out gas flaring, a process in which emissions are burnt off to release pressure in oil pipelines and other facilities.
The international program director for Friends of the Earth U.S., Elizabeth Bast, said in a statement that "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 put an end to its environmental devastation."
She added: "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."
Explaining Shell's decision to settle, its executive director for exploration and production, Malcolm Brinded, said: "While we were prepared to go to court to clear our name, we believe the right way forward is to focus on the future for Ogoni people, which is important for peace and stability in the region."
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Money can't buy you love. Shell has shown that its operations are not human-friendly and un-neighborly. It is a plantation owner for which the Nigerian govt is Shell's slave-drivers and overseers that has killed hundreds of innocent women and children, to please, in the last few weeks. The family of the murdered may take the money but Nigerians, and indeed, Africans will not forget that our 18th century ordeal of our forebears continues till today.
Shell killed two of my friends. The horror oil companies cause for the sake of...Your day has surely come. Oil companies you will pay the price for all the injustices done to the poor the day of judgement is here.Viva to the Ogoni people. That little victory is only the beginning for whats to come.You've gotten away with crimes to humanity for too long. The party is over.I don't mind paying $16.00 per gallon of gas. That just means you can no longer trash my people.
YOU'RE RIGHT. MONEY CAN'T BUY LOVE...ONLY GREAT EVIL DONE BY AND TO MANKIND. MONEY BUYS DEATH, DISTRUCTION, DECEPTION, LIES, SEX, DRUGS, VIOLENCE AND JUST PURE INSANITY. THE ONLY THING IT DOES'NT BUY IS TRUTH... BECAUSE THAT'S FREE AND NO ONE WANTS THE TRUTH. MAYBE IT'S TO GOOD TO BE TRUE.
WE NOW HAVE A DICTATORSHIP. WE ARE NO LONGER FREE TO EXPRESS. IS THIS WHAT YOUR ADMINISTRATION WANTS? THIS COUNTRY IS NO LONGER ON THE FRONTLINES...YOU LOST THE TRADITION AND ONCE YOU LOOSE THAT IN THE USA EVERYTHING ELSE IS JUST STRAIGHT UP DEAD!AMEN
The continued trend of flaring in the Niger-delta basin will provoke a trend of outcry until elected officials find a lasting solution to this evil. In the first place, each time, this obnoxious practise is kicked against, the authority simply addresses it as a common brakedown of law and order, which simply is not. Shell will not stop until perhaps more strigent legislative actions are put in place, and their commercial interests overtime is at jeopardy. The record of human rights violations and abuses (tracking the same for Shell) in Africa is applauling, so the voice of concern as shown by the pressure groups can not be silent. Saro Wiwa or not, lives the spirit forever, and the soul cries daily from the grave for action from the people placed at untold health risk. Dr Eben Dairo