THE NEW YORK TIMES: Nigerian Separatist Faces Treason Charge
“…protesting militants had taken over at least four oil flow stations run by Shell, the main producer in a country that is the world’s eighth largest oil exporter and the fifth main supplier to the United States. Shell would neither confirm nor deny facilities had been seized.”: “In 1995, writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists from his Ogoni tribe were executed under the brutal regime of then dictator Gen. Sani Abacha. They were hanged for the murder of four political rivals, but Saro-Wiwa’s supporters say he was really targeted because he led protests against environmental damage by Shell.”
Posted Friday 23 Sept 2005
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — A separatist militia leader whose arrest set off tense protests in Nigeria’s oil heartland will be charged with treason, a capital offense, police said Thursday.
Wearing a blue robe, Moujahid Dokubo-Asari appeared briefly before a court in the capital, Abuja, where a judge ordered he remain detained for two weeks before formal charges are brought.
”This is the highest form of dictatorship in the land,” he told journalists outside the courtroom afterward before being whisked away in a police van.