By Vincent Nwanma
LAGOS (MarketWatch) — There’s no basis for optimism on the return to Ogoniland by Royal Dutch Shell PLC soon, a community leader said Tuesday, brushing off a Shell statement posted on its Web site Tuesday.
In the statement, Shell said it was optimistic it could return to Ogoniland, where it stopped operating in 1993 following protests by the locals over the impact of its exploration and production activities.
“I wish I could say what’s giving them that optimism,” Ledum Mitee, president of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, or Mosop, said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires.
Mosop has led the protest against Shell, but Mitee said even a committee set up by President Olusegun Obasanjo to broker peace between the Ogonis and the Dutch oil company has failed in its efforts.
The committee, led by Matthew Kukah, a priest, has planned a church service in Ogoni, as part of efforts to reunite the two parties to the dispute, but Mitee said the process is flawed.
“They are trying to lure us through the eyes of religion,” Mitee said.
If the planned church service and the expected MOU form the basis of Shell’s optimism, Mitee said, “I will not want to share that.”
Mitee said the committee has failed to promote dialogue between the Ogonis and Shell, “then you talk of church service.”
The committee requested nominations for representatives of Ogoni in the talks with Shell, but he said the committee has rejected the list, which includes him.
“Anything based on fraud will not last,” he said, adding that he hoped the planned church service in Ogoni wouldn’t incite the people to protest.
Kukah wasn’t available for comment.
The crisis between Shell and the Ogonis reached its peak in 1995, with the hanging of nine Mosop leaders, including Ken Saro-Wiwa, a playwright and environmental activist, by the military government of Gen. Sani Abacha.
Obasanjo may want to resolve the crisis in Ogoniland before leaving office May 29, but for now, Mitee said the Kukah process “is dead and buried.”
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Last Update: 7:33 PM ET May 8, 2007
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Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
