Mr Oronto Douglas
Human Rights Attorney
Date of Birth: 1966
Place of Birth: Okoroba
Career: Lawyer, defence team for Ken Saro Wiwa, 1995; Co-founder, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria; Co-author (with Ike Okonta), Where Vultures Feast: Shell, human rights and oil in the Niger Delta.
Commentary: Oronto Douglas is a leading human rights attorney and author. He was one of a team of lawyers representing Ken Saro Wiwa during his trial under the Sani Abacha regime. He has been imprisoned many times by various dictators.
Douglas suffers from stomach cancer and has been receiving treatment at a San Francisco hospital since 2008, where he has racked up bills of almost US$300,000. When President Umaru Yar'Adua balked at paying the bills, it was considered an affront to Ijaws by members of the then vice-president, Goodluck Jonathan’s, team. Jonathan, like Douglas, is an Ijaw.