An ocean of human faces started converging as early as 5: 00am in their anxiety to secure vantage positions. Amongst them were human rights activists, local and international journalists and observers, members of Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), friends and family members. The crowd was predominantly Ogonis who did not know what to expect. It was judgment day for their heroes. It was on the 2nd of November 1995. Ken Saro-Wiwa, Baribor Bera, Daniel Gboko, Nordu Eewo, Felix Nuateh, Saturday Doobee, John Kpuinee, Barinem Kiobel and Paul Levura had all been standing trial at a special military tribunal headed by Justice Ibrahim Auta for several months.

The Royal Dutch $hell Group was created in February 1907 when the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company (legal name in Dutch, N.V. Koninklijke Nederlandsche Petroleum Maatschappij) and the "$hell" Transport and Trading Company Ltd of the United Kingdom merged their operations – a move largely driven by the need to compete globally with the then predominant US petroleum company, John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil. The terms of the merger gave 60% of the new Group to the Dutch arm and 40% to the British and are now mostly seen as a Dutch company in line with the original ownership.

“I predict that a denouement of the riddle of the Niger delta will soon come. The agenda is being set at this trial. Whether the peaceful ways I have favoured will prevail depends on what the oppressor decides, what signals it sends out to the waiting public.” Ken Saro-Wiwa, November, 1995

Nigeria and her oil alliance dismissed the warning of Saro-Wiwa; they chose not to respond to the questions that he motivated the Ogoni people to ask in their Bill of Rights. The pomposity of the country’s custodians of power is contained in a statement by Philip Asiodu, a former federal minister, who stated that the oil producing areas are too insignificant to threaten the nationhood of Nigeria.
 

Ouidah: The Displaced Ogoni Asylum Seekers and Refugees (DOAR) staying in a makeshift refugee camp in Ouidah, Benin Republic, recently held a one day workshop on the 1st of August 2009. The workshop analyzed and contextualizes the dynamics of feminism and gender equality within the ambit of Ogoni cultural practices and the struggle for ecological rights and indigenousness of the Ogonis. The workshop was organized as a collective or community participatory, organic research and appraisal session. There were more than 90 Ogoni asylees/refugees and activists in attendance.