(OKILO SOLICITORS&CHAMBERS)
PLOT 552,MARYLAND,
LAGOS ,NIGERIA.
I am Barr Melford Okilo, a solicitor at law. I am the personal attorney to Eng. John Arthur, a nationality of your country United States, who used to work with shell-development company in Nigeria. Here in after shall be referred to as my client.
On November 10, 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists were hanged in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The executions ended a 17 month stay in police custody, which followed a trial that was universally condemned as a fraud. Their crimes? Asking for the protection of their basic human rights, voicing their right to self-determination, and exposing the Shell Petroleum Development Company's (SPDC) role in destroying their homeland, dismantling their communities and killing their people.
Saro-Wiwa knew it was coming. In May of 1994 he was given a copy of a Nigerian military memo that outlined the imminent imposition of martial law in his homeland. "This is it" he said, "They are going to arrest us all and execute us all for Shell"
On the 21st of April 2002, my client, his wife And their three children were involved in a car accident along Ibadan express road. All occupants of the vehicle unfortunately lost there lives. Since then I have made several enquiries to your embassy to locate any of my clients extended relatives this has also proved unsuccessful.After these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to track his last name over the Internet, to locate any member of his family hence I contacted you.Ogoniland, the center of oil production in Nigeria, has suffered deteriorating social and environmental conditions, in great part because it is a center of the country's oil production, generating 80% of government revenues in Nigeria.
Shell Oil controls most of the country's resources, having extracted an estimated $30 billion worth of oil from Ogoniland since 1958. Shell has never used its considerable influence either to moderate the anti-democratic actions of General Abacha and previous authoritarian governments, or to help the Ogoni People and Ken Saro-Wiwa, from whose homeland, Ogoniland, Shell Oil has reaped enormous profits over the past 37 years.
Since Ken Saro-Wiwa's execution, Shell has announced plans to build a liquefied natural gas pipeline from the Niger Delta on Nigeria's coast through Ogoniland. The Niger Delta is home to coastal rain forest, mangrove habitats, and wetlands. It has been identified by the United Nations as the most endangered river delta in the world, the result of nearly four decades of oil exploitation. From 1982 to 1992 alone, more than 6.4 million liters of oil were spilled in Nigeria, an amount more than 40% higher than that released by the Exxon Valdez.
I have contacted you to assist in repatriating the money and property left behind by my client before they get confiscated or declared unserviceable by the bank . Particularly Oceanic Bank where the deceased had an account valued at about $9.6 million dollars, Has issued me a notice to provide the next of kin or have the account confisicated within the next ten official working days.Since Royal Dutch Shell struck oil on Ogoni lands in 1958, an estimated $30 billion worth of oil has been extracted. In return the Ogoni, a group of 550,000 farmers and fishermen inhabiting this coastal land, have received little except a ravaged environment. Once fertile farmland has been laid waste by oil spills and acid rain. Uncontrolled oil spills dotted the landscape with puddles of ooze the size of football fields. Virtually all fish and wildlife have vanished. Meanwhile, out of Shell's Nigerian workforce of 5,000, less than 100 are Ogoni.
In January 1993 Saro-Wiwa gathered 300,000 Ogoni to march peacefully to demand a share in oil revenues and some form of political autonomy. MOSOP also asked the oil companies to begin environmental remediation and pay compensation for past damage.
In May 1994 Saro-Wiwa, who had been briefly imprisoned several times before, was abducted from his home and jailed along with other MOSOP leaders in connection with the murder of four Ogoni leaders. Amnesty International adopted Saro-Wiwa, a staunch advocate of non-violence, as a prisoner of conscience. Meanwhile, the Nigerian military took control of Ogoniland subjecting people to mass arrest, rape, execution and the burning and looting of their villages.
In October 1995 a military tribunal tried and convicted Saro-Wiwa of murder. Governments and citizens' organizations worldwide condemned the trial as fraudulent, and urged the Nigerian dictator to spare Saro-Wiwa's life. They also called upon Shell to intervene.
On November 10, 1995 Saro-Wiwa and his eight co-defendants were hanged.
Since I have been unsuccesfull in locating the the relatives for over 2 years now I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin of the deceased since you have the same last name so that the proceeds of this account valued at $9.6 million dollars can be paid to you and then you and me can share the money.
