Chevron cleared in 1998 shootings at Nigerian oil platform

Survivors of the 1998 incident had argued that the oil company should be held accountable because it paid the police and soldiers and transported them by helicopter to the oil platform, where they shot and killed two unarmed protesters and wounded two others.

San Ramon-based Chevron, California's largest company, countered that the villagers were holding workers hostage at the platform and that the company acted responsibly by calling in local authorities to protect them.

"We are pleased with the verdict today," Chevron spokesman Don Campbell said. "The jury upheld our position that our response was a reasonable one."

Bert Voorhees, an attorney for the Nigerian villagers, said the plaintiffs' team of attorneys would appeal.

He said he was disappointed that they were not able to convince the jury that Chevron acted improperly when it called in the brutal Nigerian police unit known as the "Kill and Go" squad to break up the peaceful protest. The villagers denied taking hostages or committing acts of violence.

Voorhees said "cultural barriers" may have made it difficult for the jury to understand the situation in Nigeria, where brutality and corruption were commonplace under the rule of Gen. Sani Abacha, who died in 1998 shortly after the incident at the oil platform.

"It's a difficult story to tell a third of the way around the world," Voorhees said. "I'm disappointed we weren't able to find a way to show the jury what was going on."

He said the plaintiffs also were hampered by rulings from U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, including allowing Chevron to present testimony about the hijacking of a nearby tugboat by protesters fleeing the shooting. Voorhees said none of the plaintiffs was connected to the tugboat incident and that allowing the testimony was a "clear error."

Larry Bowoto, the lead plaintiff in the case, who testified that he was shot in the elbow, side and buttock while holding up his hands, said he was disappointed in the verdict and Chevron's apparent success in casting the protesters as kidnappers.