Dr Kiobel’s Widow: A Living Story Of Shell’s Cruelty

The nature of this Esther Kiobel et al versus Royal Dutch Shell case makes it incumbent on the U.S. Supreme Court to reach a decision that would curtail the genocidal activities of corporations, rather than passing a judgment that would be tantamount to double standard. This is because there is adequate evidence that expose Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC)’s evil collaboration with Nigerian government, which invariably poses legitimate and explainable fear that if ever the case is referred to Nigeria, the oil giant will be exonerated.

In other words, transferring the case to any other court outside the U.S. would invariably imply arming the defendant with the jurisdiction of the case. Thus, in as much as I and my co-plaintiff are not praying for a verdict based on sentiments, the attention of the court ought to be drawn to the danger inherent in a failure to decide this case here in the United States. The court ought to be reminded that the case we have against Shell is that of collaborating, aiding and abetting human rights violations by the Nigerian Government, and as a result, the Nigerian courts lack the rectitude to decide the case, since, by virtue of being an arm of government, they are Shell’s accomplice. It would discredit the United States Supreme Court’s judgmental competence if this case is referred to Nigeria, because even a child in the crèche knows that you cannot ask an abuser to be his or her own judge. The United States Supreme Court must be keen to recognize that the Alien Tort Statute 28 U.S.C. §1350 is unarguably the appropriate legal apparatus for recognizing a cause of action for violations of human rights by corporations outside the United States.

My appeal is that the Supreme Court’s decision on this case may not be like the declaration of the U.S. Appeal Court of the 2^nd Circuit, which ensured the connotation that because international law didn’t specifically apportion liability to corporations, or because no corporation had been held liable under international law, corporations could do as they pleased, invariably resulting in further corporate killings, genocide and instability in Africa and such other oppressed lands.

I was brought into the United States in February 1998 as a refugee, including the rest of Plaintiff in Kiobel versus Shell case 10-1491 currently in the U.S. Supreme Court, and we are now citizens of the United States. We are holding Shell responsible for the crimes committed against us and the rest of humanity. I was stripped naked, tortured, and locked up twice, while my husband and the rest of the Ogoni 9 were maimed, strangled, killed and acidized. I have proofs of those who were paid by Shell, and who were in their payroll to lie, testify, some of them sworn affidavit in court and some of them are in America. I do have documents that implicate Shell. The documents were sent through my late husband’s office as Honorable Commissioner for Commerce and Tourism during the Komo administration as military governor of Rivers State. I do have pictures of Shell’s cronies airlifting my husband in their helicopter, dressed in uniform and helmet that bore Shell’s logo. There are also secret documents to prove how Shell tried to bribe my husband in an executive meeting at the government house in Port Harcourt, when they planned to arrest and kill Ken Saro-Wiwa. And when they did not succeed, they turned around to mastermind the killing of the Ogoni 4, in a bid to set confusion amongst the Ogoni people – a problem that has remained to date.

New undeniable evidence suggest the Nigerian military killed four Ogoni elders, whose murder led to the execution of my husband, Hon. (Dr.) Barinem Nubari Kiobel, Ken Saro-Wiwa and the rest in 1995.

The evidence also reveal that the notorious military commander, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Okuntimo, whose troops were implicated in murder and rape, was on the payroll of Shell at the time of the killings, and was driven around in a Shell vehicle, bearing the company’s logo.

Since the time of their death, Shell has insisted that it had no financial relationship with the Nigerian military, although it had admitted paying it “field allowances” on two occasions. They have consistently denied any widespread collusion and payments. However, the UK Independent gained exclusive access to witness accounts that were to be used in evidence in the case of Wiwa v Shell, brought by Ken Saro-Wiwa’s family. The case was settled out of court for $15.5 Million just days before it was due to start in New York. The settlement meant that the testimonies were never made public.

However, they provide fresh insight into Shell’s financial and logistic involvement with the Nigerian military and with Lieutenant Colonel Paul Okuntimo.

Some of the key witnesses due to testify in court were Mr. Ejiogu Boniface, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Okuntimo’s orderly in Internal Security Task-force, a coalition of army, navy, and police. Mr. Ejiogu testified to standing guard as victims were raped and tortured while Lieutenant Colonel Paul Okuntimo was in command. Asked if he ever saw his Commander receive money from Shell. He said he witnessed it on two occasions. Mr. Ejiogu described in detail how just days before the Ogoni elders were murdered, he drove with Okuntimo to Shell’s base in Port Harcourt, where the officer received seven large bags of money. “I was there when other soldiers were carrying Ghana-must-go bags” he testified. The bags were so heavy; the soldiers had difficulty carrying them, and one fell open. Mr. Ejiogu said, “I saw it was money in bundles,” he said.

On another occasion, Mr. Ejiogu witnessed four bags being given by a Shell security official to Lieutenant Colonel Paul Okuntimo at the official’s house late at night.

Another witness due to testify was Raphael Kponee. Also due to testify was a policeman working for Shell. On a different occasion, he saw three bags being loaded into Lieutenant Colonel Paul Okuntimo’s pick-up truck by his driver and another driver in front of security building at the Shell base.

Shell officials have admitted that money was paid to the officer, but purely as field allowances for his men who were protecting Shell property in Ogoni land.

Mr. Ejiogu also offers compelling evidence as to who may have murdered the Ogoni four elders at the meeting on May 21, 1994. Saro-Wiwa was due to speak, but was turned away by the military. Mr. Ejiogu said he heard Lieutenant Colonel Paul Okuntimo tell his task-force commander to “waste them.” In the army, they use the term “waste them” when they refer to shooting rapidly.

Within 24 hours, Kenule Saro-Wiwa, Barr. Ledum Mitte, and Hon. (Dr.) Barinem Nubari Kiobel were arrested and charged with murder. It was implied that they had had the elders killed because of their moderate stance on Ogoni issues.

Despite an international outcry, they were hanged on November 10, 1995, following a fake trial. Other witnesses to testify that [missing word/phrase] were in Shell payroll were Mr. Naayone Npka, Mr. Charles Danwi, etc.

I was also called by Precilia Vikue from Bodo at Creek Road fish market Port Harcourt. She said my husband would be saved if he could testify against Ken Saro-Wiwa. She said she would take me to a meeting place where we could sort it out with Shell, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Okuntimo, Alhaji Kobani. And I would also meet some that had already agreed to testify. I asked her, “Do they live there?” She said “No,” and added “we all meet at a meeting time and conclude on what to say in order not to contradict statements.” I told her that I had to discuss it with my husband. When I discussed it with my husband, we both decided that as Christians it was not good to lie against an innocent soul. I believe that was one of the things that Okuntimo hated me for, because he then knew that I knew part of his secrets, and he wanted to get rid of me. He tried to make me go to bed with him in other to be friends. He told me to do what other women did, and I asked him what it was. He then tried to touch my breasts. I pushed his hands off me, and told him that I loved my husband, and that we married spiritually and physically, and that I would never betray him.

I narrated all this to a Nigerian Newspaper, “my experience with Lieutenant Colonel Paul Okuntimo,” which was published in News Star of January 17-18. They could not publish all I said because of fear of threat to their lives.

Lieutenant Colonel Paul Okuntimo threatened to kill me. He said he knew two hundred and eighty (280) ‘’something’’ ways of killing people, and that he was going to use one of those to get rid of me in a secret cell at Kpor, where he already killed and buried a lot of Ogoni people. When my case was brought up before the tribunal, he told the Judge that I came with food for my husband at Bori-Camp and got mentally derailed, and that I was at the Psychiatry hospital, but our lawyer, Alhaji Fatai Osho told the Judge that it was false. The lawyer stated that the wife of the accused was locked up at Kpor secret cell. Thank God for the good soldiers, that was how my release was ordered.

I brought the late Gbenemene of Gokana, Bagia to testify for my husband, which he did. The next one was our driver that was with my husband at the time. Okuntimo refused him because he knew that with the Gbenemene’s testimony, they were already loosing the case.

There were enough evidence and tapes produced before the Tribunal that exonerated my husband. Also, evidence that implicated Komo and Shell from the executive meeting at the Government House where he wanted my husband to go and make sure that Ken did not participate in the National Constitutional Conference, and also for Ken to be arrested and killed. But my husband refused to carry out the order and he was afraid that my husband was going to expose him; therefore he decided to implicate my husband into what he did not know. I personally brought in the eye-witnesses (1) Late Gbenemene of Gokana, (2) Our driver who was always with my husband, (3) the tapes, etc.

The tribunal ignored all the evidence and testimonies, because they had already made up their mind to kill Ken and my husband, also the rest of them, because of Shell – the destroyers that boldly announced their presence at the Tribunal and the lawyers they brought were from Britain and the United States. They felt they owned the world.

As this case before the Supreme Court drags on, it saddens me by the day that my husband’s killers are still out there, loosed, without justice served. I am fighting for justice by proving my husband’s innocence. And I want the world to know that America is the only place I can prove my case; I started here. If this case is treated here, my children and grandchildren, who are all Americans, will derive a sense of security and the assurance that their well-being and protection is catered for by this country they have been taught to see as the home of the free. This is the country that rescued me from being killed, and I still rely on this same country to vindicate me, especially owing to the provision in the American judicial system to cater for cases like mine.

It would be so endangering if the Alien Tort Statute, which has attracted remedies for about three decades, now cannot work in this case. The Alien Tort Statute gave succor and relieves in the past to victims of corporate human rights abuses that now would be stymied if this case is dismissed or referred to Nigeria or any other place. I plead that the attendant consequence of the Supreme Court’s decision be considered in deciding this case alongside legal precedents. I seek justice for Shell’s genocidal activities of which my late husband and I and my children, as well as the rest of the plaintiff in this case were victims. My first daughter was beaten and physically abused by Okuntimo when she brought food to my late husband, because I was locked up, and my husband had refused to eat any food not brought to him by me and my children. It is saddening to think of how my daughter was abused that way by a military man, the trauma of which has remained in her to date without help.

With scores of human rights abuse cases hanging on Shell’s neck, the company’s manipulative tendencies have become unprecedentedly diabolical than ever. It is sickening to hear Shell’s lawyers claiming the company was off the hook of the human rights violations and my husband’s death, whereas the company announced their presence at the fake tribunal from day one till the end, and even had their lawyers who had come from Europe and America. The company was involved in full force, and therefore cannot be exculpated. They have succeeded in the past and saved their face from the shame they deserved, but this time they cannot escape justice again, no matter how hard the company fights to silence the prevalence of truth. The world now is aware that Shell would do anything to quench a potential legal embarrassment. For instance, settling the Wiwa case out of court with $15.5 million in 2009 shows to what extent Shell can prevent itself from facing judgment for their heinous crimes. And the American public and literate people of good conscience around the world, including legal luminaries are expecting the Supreme Court now to put these companies in check by passing a judgment that would vindicate the oppressed, since the Alien Tort Statute is undoubtedly the last hope for the oppressed in this instance. A contrary judgment will give legal permit to corporations to kill without recourse and unabated.

I am seizing this medium to plead for justice. I am a victim, widow and a mother fighting to make my voice and those of others in my shoes heard. I am constantly mindful of the pain and agony my children and I faced as a result of what Shell did. Every thing around me in one way or the other makes fresh the horror of abuse I faced, and my husband’s cries have remained ineradicable in my mind’s eye. I wish to beg the Supreme Court to; favor me and favor the oppressed; vindicate my late husband and appraise the concept of innocence; and bring Shell to justice and punish perpetrators of human rights abuses.

Thank you.

Esther Kiobel,

Plaintiff – Esther Kiobel et al Versus Royal Dutch Shell.

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