Reactions Trail Wrongful Blacklist Of Sunny Ofehe On Terror Watch List

Sunny Ofehe

Reactions have continued to trail a leaked blacklist used by banks and other institutions as a guide against terrorism sponsorship and fraud which features the name of Nigerian-born Dutch environmental rights activist, Sunny Ofehe, among thousands of innocent Dutch persons, BigPen Online can report.

The victims mainly Dutch citizens got a shocker when they discovered that their names were listed wrongfully on the World-Check list which was first exposed by investigative online platform OneWorld .

The list called “Watch-List” later sold to Thomas Reuters has names of thousands of people wrongly blacklisted without their knowledge.

The list containing children of Dutch MP’s, local drivers and even the mother of Mark Ruthe, the current prime minister of The Netherlands were compiled based on a rough investigation most of which centred on suspicions and unproven allegations.

The list which is used by 49 of the 50 largest banks in the world as reported by the Dutch online investigative organization was compiled since 2011.

Ofehe, a renowned environmental activist, had his name on the list because of a case against him by the Dutch police in 2011 that was later dropped when it was discovered that the authorities had wrongly accused him.

Ofehe had made a trip to the then troubled Niger Delta region of Nigeria with some Dutch journalists to cover the level of environmental degradation which gave rise to militant groups taking arms against Shell and the Nigerian government at that time.

The Dutch police had mistranslated taped telephone calls from Ofehe’s conversations in preparations for the safety of the foreign journalists he travelled with.

His car and office were closely monitored for 18 months and he was wrongly charged with terrorism in 2011.

The case was dropped  in 2012 after it  was discovered that the police had mistranslated his calls.

The Watch-list  got Ofehe blacklisted for this.

Relying on publications by four newspapers, Watch-list unprofessionally blacklisted Ofehe without further investigations.

“This unprofessional manner of compiling a terror blacklist produced a list of thousands of innocent people who are now victims of circumstance without even knowing”, Comrade Phils said.

Same applies to others on the list. Most people were falsely accused or wrongly branded terrorist and blacklisted.

Money-making merchants banks and other financial institutions pay thousands of dollars to have the watch-list as a guide to prevent terrorism sponsorship and fraud.

Nigerians React on Twitter With #ActivistNotTerrorist

When the news of the wrongful blacklisting of Sunny Ofehe on Watch-List filtered into the Nigerian online space where Ofehe is held as a hero for selfless contributions to the development of his oil-rich region of the Niger Delta, Twitter erupted with reactions from Nigerians using the hashtag #ActivistNotTerrorist.

See tweets below: @sunnyofehe exposed The double standard of @Shell_Nigeria in the Niger Delta and they slammed him with false charges #ActivistNotTerrorist — Tcee ??

(@emmaikumeh) June 24, 2017 Let it be known that @sunnyofehe is an #ActivistNotTerrorist a passionate environmentalist and a believer of equity

— Alabo Roland (@Roland_speaks) June 24, 2017 Comrade Sunny Ofehe has gone through this before and came out victorious. This won’t be an exception.

@sunnyofehe #ActivistNotTerrorist — Emmanuel china (@chinakissme) June 24, 2017 How do u enlist a fellow on a crime watchlist without due investigations.

This is most unprofessional #ActivistNotTerrorist — Comrade Phils (@comradephils)

Written by Joe Ogbodu