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Victory in Bowoto v. ChevronTexaco: Court Allows Nigerian Plaintiffs' Claims to Proceed
On March 23, 2004, a federal judge ruled that ChevronTexaco may be held liable for the acts of its Nigerian subsidiary, where ChevronTexaco allowed the subsidiary to hire the notorious Nigerian military and police as a security force. Bowoto v. ChevronTexaco challenges a May 1998 incident in which Chevron's subsidiary, CNL, hired military “security forces.” Those forces murdered and injured a number of unarmed Nigerians protesting Chevron's environmental and business practices on Chevron’s Parabe oil platform just off Nigeria's coast.