Serious questions over Shell Oil’s alleged involvement in human rights abuses in Nigeria emerged last night after confidential internal documents and court statements revealed how the energy giant enlisted the help of the country’s brutal former military government to deal with protesters.

The response from Ogoni was noted on the Nigerian news site, NEXT:

Supporters of further legal actions against Shell were delighted with a story carried by a United Kingdom weekly, Independent on Sunday. The weekly, in a story entitled “Secret papers show how Shell targeted Nigeria oil protesters,” quoted copiously from internal Shell documents it claimed to have seen. The paper said the documents “revealed how the energy giant enlisted the help of the country’s brutal former military government to deal with protesters.”

Questions sent to Shell about this and other issues, including next week’s case against it by an Asaba court, were not responded to at press time.

Continue reading this article.