Factsheet: The Case Against Royal Dutch/Shell

On November 10, 1995, nine Ogoni leaders (the “Ogoni 9”) were executed by the Nigerian government after being falsely accused of murder and tried by a specially created military tribunal. Those executed included world renowned novelist and human rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, the leader of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), John Kpuinen, a Deputy President of MOSOP’s youth wing, Saturday Doobee, Daniel Gbokoo, Felix Nuate, and Dr. Barinem Kiobel. The executions were the result of collaboration between the company then known as Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and Shell Transport and Trading Company, p.l.c., ("Shell") and the military government to repress protest against Shell’s oil business in Nigeria.

Shell also engaged in a campaign of increased militarization to violently repress peaceful demonstrations by MOSOP. From 1990-1995, the Nigerian government, at the request of Shell, would use heavy violence and conduct massive raids to repress the protests. In 1993, for example, Karalolo Kogbara was beaten and shot by government troops while protesting the bulldozing of her crops in preparation for a Shell pipeline. Uebari N-nah was shot and killed in October 1993 near a Shell flow station at Korokoro, Rivers State, Nigeria.

In 1996, CCR began a series of cases against Royal Dutch Shell, to hold Shell accountable for these human rights violations.