ThisDayOnline.com: Violence: MOSOP Blames Shell, Police: “accusing Shell of paying for a disastrous set of interventions which breach the basic standards of police and corporate conduct.” (ShellNews.net)

From Okon Bassey In Port Harcourt

22 August 04

Movement for the survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has accused Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and the police for instigating violence in Ogoni land.

President of MASOP, Barrister Ledum Mitee made the accusation yesterday in Port Harcourt, protesting the posting of mobile police to a Shell facility in Ogoni land their partisan involvement in violence from one part of a community against others.

THISDAY gathered that armed mobile police were posted to the SPDC manifold of pipelines carrying about 200,000 barrels of oil per day crossing Ogoni land on the justification of providing security for staff who clamped a leaking valve in the first week of their presence.

'The MOPOL have now remained at the site for over two weeks and have been involved in at least three separate incidents of pursuing members of the community in the company of armed youths, with those captured on each occasion being assaulted and in more recent cases, cut with machetes, Mitee said

MOSOP, according to Barrister Mitee, firmly believe that the continued presence of these mobile police would not be possible without the financial support of the Anglo-Dutch oil giant accusing Shell of paying for a disastrous set of interventions which breach the basic standards of police and corporate conduct.

http://www.thisdayonline.com/news/20040822news11.html