Second day of witness hearing starts. Yesterday the judges questioned three Nigerian men who said that they had been offered bribes to testify falsely against the Ogoni 9.
Third and last witness enters the room. His name is Ledum Mitee. He was Ken Saro-Wiwa's deputy and one of the men accused of murder. Mitee was the only one to be acquitted. The others were hanged in 1995.
Mitee says that when he was in prison, he heard that prosecution witnesses were introduced to Shell people and were promised "all kind of things", such a jobs, houses and money, if they agreed to testify against the Ogoni 9.
He adds that after the murder of the four Ogoni chiefs, there were mass arrests. All the detainees were taken outside their cells, and the witnesses were asked to identify those responsible for the murders.
During the trial he spoke with the husbands of the plaintiffs (#Kiobel, Bera, Eawo and Lewula), who also had been identified by the witnesses. It was based on the statements of the witnesses that they were detained. The whole case started from there, he says.
He says that during the trial, anything that was put forward in favour of Dr Kiobel was put aside. Another witness came forward to say that they were not the ones who incited the murders, but this too was ignored.
Mitee says the common thread in what the witnesses said is that they (Saro Wiwa, Kiobel, Bera, etc.) were responsible for the murders. He believes the witnesses were bribed by Shell and the government to say this.
He describes Dr. #Kiobel Kiobel as a peacemaker.
The lawyer asks Mitee about the meeting at which bribes were allegedly offered to witnesses. He said that, he remembers being told, the meeting took place at the home of a Shell "contractor" in Port Harcourt.
Miitee says that this Shell contractor had also told him about this meeting. The contractor confirmed presence of Shell during the meeting, and that he too like the witnesses was offered promise of Shell jobs
and with this, the hearing is over. There were no questions from Shell's lawyers. The judge asked Esther #Kiobel Kiobel's lawyers to identify names of further witnesses for another hearing.T This will take place sometimes beginning of 2010.
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