The trial begins in Rotterdam on Monday of Nigerian activist Sunny Ofehe. He’s been charged with plotting to blow up oil pipelines operated by Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria.

In an exclusive interview with RNW, Mr. Ofehe and his lawyers spoke about the charges against him.

Early this year Mr. Ofehe was arrested in the Netherlands and detained for two weeks on suspicion of people smuggling and forgery. Formal charges were finally laid in early August when a new charge was also added – conspiring to commit an act of terrorism. Mr Ofehe, who is 39, is accused of making plans to blow up several pipelines operated by the Anglo-Dutch oil concern Shell in the Niger Delta.

Awareness-raising
Sunny Ofehe is the founder of the Hope for the Niger Delta Campaign that aims to raise awareness of the extensive environmental pollution caused by oil companies. At the end of last year Ofehe accompanied a Dutch member of parliament on a fact-finding mission to the Niger Delta, ahead of a parliamentary hearing into Shell's operations in the region, at which he testified. Central to Ofehe’s campaign is the filming of oil spills and the documentation of acts of sabotage to pipelines with the intent of siphoning off oil to sell illegally - a practice known as oil bunkering. Dutch prosecutors may suspect that he incited others to commit criminal acts in order to document them.

Seeing is believing
Mr Ofehe says the terrorism charge comes as a complete surprise. His lawyers say the only evidence Dutch prosecutors seem to have against Mr Ofehe is three tapped telephone conversations. Mr Ofehe says during these talks he was making arrangements with a friend in Nigeria to film a documentary in the Niger Delta.

Filming the situation is essential, he says. “I’m not a professional journalist, I’m an amateur journalist, and I believe that seeing is believing. There is no way my campaign can be effective without showing the people what is happening there.”

He told Radio Netherlands Worldwide he suspects that Shell staff, members of the JTF (a Nigerian army unit created to fight militants) and local community chiefs are all involved in oil bunkering. With his filming, he is trying to document this. He categorically denies having had any criminal intent.

Sabotage
One of Mr Ofehe’s laywers, Ed Manders of the law firm Manders Advocaten, says he does not understand “why Dutch police are concerned about oil pipelines in Nigeria”. But Wim de Bruijn, a spokesperson for the public prosecutor’s office, says a person can be charged in the Netherlands for acts committed abroad if the conspiracy took place on Dutch soil.

Royal Dutch Shell says most of the spills at its facilities in Nigeria are caused by sabotage and theft – in 2010, this accounted for eighty percent of the spillage in the Niger Delta. The average over five years was seventy percent.

Political conspiracy
Ofehe’s lawyers are sceptical about the motives in the case against their client. They are convinced that the Dutch authorities are complicit in a campaign to silence a vocal critic of the multinational oil companies and alleged misappropriation of oil revenues by the Nigerian government. “There’s something funny going on, that’s all I can say for now,” says Ed Manders.

Monday’s court session is procedural. Arguments in the case will begin at a later date. 

Radio Netherlands Worldwide will be blogging live from the courtroom in Rotterdam.