Saro-Wiwa was in 2005 sentenced to death by hanging by a military tribunal set up by late dictator, Sani Abacha.
Shell agreed to pay the settlement a day before a federal US court was about to rule on a case that Shell collaborated with the Nigerian government in the execution of the Ogoni Nine, as the executed community leaders were popularly referred to.
Shell was accused of helping the Nigerian military in the torture and persecution of the Ogoni people. It was also alleged to have provided the Nigerian army with vehicles, patrol boats and ammunition, and to have assisted in the raids and terror campaigns against villages.
However, the Nigerian subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, Shell Development Company continues to dismiss all claims of its culpability in the killing of the activists and the environmental degradation of the Niger Delta.
Similarly, the Nigerian government is yet to acknowledge any wrong doing in the killing of the men, 20 years after they were hanged.
The payout is one of the largest by a multinational corporation for a human rights related case and it marks the end of a 14-year struggle to hold Shell accountable for its involvement in the tragic death of the activists.
It's believed that the scale of the settlement would have far-reaching effect in making multinational corporations accountable for their social and environmental deeds.
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