“Yes Shell Bribed Me”, Key Witness Tells Court 24 Years After The Execution Of The Ogoni 9

A District Court of The Hague, The Netherlands has been told of how Dutch Royal oil giant, Shell allegedly bribed witnesses in the trial of the Ogoni 9.

Investigative journalist Andy Rowell and Mark Dummett of Amnesty International who wrote on the trial in October, report that witnesses gave damning evidence of “Shell’s intentional corruption of the Ogoni 9 trial, via bribery and witness coaching”.

According to a live tweeting from the court by Mark Dummett and his colleague, Sabrina Tucci, the identity of the first two of the witnesses were kept confidential but the third witness was allowed in court.

“It is difficult not to understate how important these testimonies are to hopefully hold Shell to account after all these years.

“The court is now not expected to sit until February next year, which ironically, will be a quarter of a century after the Ogoni 9 were murdered.

“For more than twenty years Shell has escaped scrutiny over its role in these tragic events, ” says Mark Dummett from Amnesty while commending the courage and persistence of Esther Kiobel and the other women who brought the case before the court.

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He claimed that another witness whose identity was allowed to be revealed by the court also alleged that he was offered bribe by Shell to testify, falsely against the Ogoni 9.

The amnesty official tweeted that shell has since denied the allegations.

BIGPEN Online understands that Esther Kiobel and three other widows of Ogoni 9 – Victoria Bera, Blessing Eawo and Charity Levula brought the case before District Court in The Hague allegedly accusing Shell of being complicit in the unlawful arrest, detention and execution of their husbands

Shell had long denied all allegations that it was complicit in the deaths of the Ogoni Nine or human rights abuses, according to TheGuardian UK but it acknowledged that it was aware that Nigeria’s military was taking action to protect the company’s infrastructure.