Chevron's acting head of security in Nigeria, James Neku, admitted he flew in with the military the day of the attack. Douglas was one of the lawyers for Ken Saro-Wiwa, who exposed the brutal record of the Kill 'n' Go in Ogoniland. Chevron spokesperson Omole concedes that the villagers were unarmed. There was talk of local charms and all that, but that's neither here nor there. Chevron contends that when the helicopters landed on a barge at the facility, the soldiers got out and issued a warning.
Villagers say there was no warning, that the soldiers simply started shooting.
After the shooting incident, eleven activists were held in a barge shipping container for hours and then jailed for three weeks. Bola Oyinbo says that during his imprisonment he was handcuffed and hung from a ceiling-fan hook for hours for refusing to sign a statement written by Nigerian authorities that stated the protesters had destroyed a helicopter. Among the villagers, it is a fact of life that the Nigerian military serves as a hired gun for the transnational oil companies in the delta. But most oil companies do not want to admit this. But Bill Spencer, area manager of ETPM, the company that leased the barge to Chevron, said this was not true.