Shell settles highly damaging legal action

Oil giant Shell has settled a legal action in which it was accused of having collaborated in the execution of writer and journalist Ken Saro-Wiwa out of court, paying $15.5m to 10 plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs were mainly relatives of the Ogoni nine, a group of activists - including Saro-Wiwa - who were arrested and executed by the Nigerian government in the mid 1990s after protesting against Shell's activities in the Ogoni region of the Niger delta.

In a statement, the plaintiffs’ attorneys at the Centre for Constitutional Rights welcomed the decision.

"In the 13-year struggle to expose Shell’s role in the suppression of the Ogoni people and their peaceful movement, we have been carried forward by the determination of the plaintiffs and the encouragement of their supporters," says the statement.

"Their fortitude has helped to establish a principle that goes beyond Shell and Nigeria. Every corporation, like every individual, should be held to the same universal human rights standards the world over."

The company was alleged to have provided Nigerian authorities with military resources to combat campaigners.

Some $5m of the money will be used to set up a trust to support educational and other initiatives in the Niger delta.

The legal battle has dragged on for 15 years and has done much damage to Shell's efforts to rebrand itself as an environmentally friendly firm. The company continues to illegally flare 256 million cubic feet of natural gas a day, according to the independent Niger Delta Stakeholder Democracy Network, one of the chief complaints of the original activists.

Shell claims to have reduced gas flaring by 60 per cent between 2002 and 2008. Gas flaring is the burning of gas that comes to the surface when crude oil is drilled. It is responsible for about 400 million tons of CO2 annually, according to the World Bank.

Elizabeth Bast, International Program Director for Friends of the Earth US, said: “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 puts an end to its environmental devastation."

Writing in the Guardian, Saro-Wiwa's son, Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr, said: " There are other cases outstanding against Shell. Feelings still run high. Many people suffered and many more are still suffering unnecessarily."