Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to pay a settlement of $15.5 Million (N3 billion) over the killing of novelist and environmental activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and eight other Ogoni leaders, London Guardian reports.
Saro-Wiwa was in 2005 sentenced to death by hanging by a military tribunal set up by late dictator, Sani Abacha.
Shell agreed to the settlement a day before a federal court in New York, United States, was about to rule on a case that Shell collaborated with the Nigerian government in the execution of the Ogoni Nine, as the executed community leaders were popularly referred to.
The payout is one of the largest by a multinational corporation for a human rights related case and it marks the end of a 14-year struggle to hold Shell accountable for its involvement in the tragic death of the activists.
Human rights experts said the scale of the settlement would have far-reaching effect in making multinational corporations accountable for their social and environmental deeds.
