Shell refused to help Saro-Wiwa unless protest called off

The brother of executed Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa has accused Shell of attempting to trade with his brother's freedom during secret meetings in Lagos.

The Observer has learnt that Brian Anderson, head of Shell Nigeria, offered last summer to use the oil giant's influence with Nigeria's military regilne to try to win freedom for Saro-Wiwa - if leaders in Ogoniland called off global protests against Shell.

The dramatic accusations were made this weekend by Dr Owens Wiwa, younger brother of Saro-Wiwa who escaped from Nigeria last Thursday after a year on the run from General Sani Abacha's govern- ment. The Observer spoke to Dr Wiwa from a safe house in another West African country.

Shell confirmed that the meetings took place but refused to comment on them.

Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists were executed nine days ago. Ogoni sources say the activists were starved for the three days before the killings. Dr Wiwa confirmed they had been deprived of food, water and bedding.

The revelation comes at a tirne of maximum embarrassment for Shell as international fury builds over its plans to extend operations in Nigeria. Shell decided last week to go ahead with a £2.6 billion gas plant in the Niger delta.

Yesterday President Nelson Mandela warned that South Africa would impose sanctions on the company if the deal with the pariah regime went ahead. In Britain dozens of Shell petrol stations were hit by protests organised by Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the Body Shop.

Dr Wiwa told the Observer that Shell's conditional offer of help had been made at three secret meetings he held in Lagos with Mr Anderson, between May and July last year.

'Each time, I asked him to help to get my brother and the others out. He said he would be able to help us get Ken freed if we stopped the protest campaign abroad.

'I was very shocked. Even if I had wanted to, I didn't have the power to control the international environmental protests'

Dr Wiwa said the meetings, the first of which was organised through the British High Commissioner in Lagos, undermined Shell's repeated claims not to be involved in Nigerian politics.

'Shell are involved in Nigerian politics up to their neck If they had threatened to withdraw from Nigeria unless Ken was released, he would have been alive today. There is no question of that.'

Dr Wiwa is seeking asylum in Britain and is expected to fly to London in the next few days.

Shell launched a major public relations campaign in Britain this weekend. Full-page advertisements in national newspapers argue that the new gas plant would create thousands of much-needed local jobs and that, as a multinational company, it would be wrong for Shell to 'intervene in the political process in Nigeria.'

A spokesman or Shell International confirmed yesterday that Mr Anderson had held 'a number of private meetings' with Dr Wiwa. He said the meetings were an attempt at 'quiet diplomacy' - not an intrusion into politics.

Dr Wiwa joined the chorus of voices urging Shell to pull out of the natural gas project. He said the plant, to be based at Bonny, 20 miles from the Ogoni border, would provide a focus for violent conflict.

Dr Wiwa, 38, a medical doctor and a senior figure in the Ogoni self-determination movement, went into hiding in Lagos in May 1994, three weeks after his brother was arrested. 'I was very frightened and moved from house to house every few weeks, sometimes with my family, sometimes on my own. I made a few trips back to Ogoniland but it was very dangerous,' he said.

Through his army contacts, Dr Wiwa was able to keep in contact with his brother, who was imprisoned in a military barracks. Sounding tired end tense, Dr Wiwa said he had also been given graphic details of his brother's last days through army contacts. 'My friends told me that the three days before he died were the worst of his captivity. They took all his bedding and virtually left hils naked. Then they refused to give him water and they beat him up.'