The "performance" of short sellers in shorting ERHC certainly would have been very lucrative, profitable, and impressive in gains...
...BUT!...
Every so often, a "black swan event" comes along which COMPLETELY wipes out not only all the gains, but all the capital deployed to get those gains.
ERHC is such a black swan...and it fits the definition perfectly in that it will be absolutely catastrophic for short sellers, but in hindsight it will have been more than obvious.