The legal effort seeking accountability for the oil pollution in the Niger Delta, as
Agence France-Presse noted, was brought forth by the Netherlands branch of Friends of the Earth, and “has dragged on so long that two of the Nigerian farmers have died since it was first filed in 2008.”
#Shell has today been defeated in court by Nigerian farmers.
This is a hopeful day for all victims of oil companies pollution and human rights abuses.
But no victim should have to wait 13 years for justice#StopShell#HoldBizAccountablehttps://t.co/1Aa8ouJw6f Friends of the Earth Europe #BlackLivesMatter (@foeeurope) January 29, 2021
Lagos, Nigeria – It has taken 13 years for Fidelis Oguru to get the victory that he and a group of other farmers in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta region so badly wanted.
On Friday, the Court of Appeal in The Hague ruled that Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), was at fault for environmental degradation caused by pipeline leaks in the villages of Oruma and Goi in the Niger Delta region.
The Dutch court ordered the Nigerian arm of the British-Dutch company to pay yet-to-be-decided compensation to the affected villages.
“I am very happy and I thank God,” said Oguru, an 80-year-old farmer and one of the plaintiffs from Oruma village.
Shell. Photo: FIRCROFTFarmers from Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa and Rivers States, have hailed the judiciary for remaining the hope of the common man.
The farmers commended the ruling of the Dutch Appeal Court sitting in Hague, yesterday, which ordered Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to pay compensation to them following the devastation of their farmlands through oil exploitation. x
Milieudefensie, the Dutch branch of Friends of The Earth, had in 2008 filed a lawsuit on behalf of the farmers against Shell following oil spills that destroyed their farmlands and other properties in Ikot Ada Udo community in Akwa Ibom State, Oruma community in Bayelsa State and Goi community in Rivers State.
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana has said it will be difficult and inequitable to arrest the popular Yoruba activist, Sunday Igboho for asking Fulani herdsmen to vacate Igangan, Ibarapa area of Oyo State.
Falana, while featuring on a Channels television programme on Friday morning said the failure of the Federal Government to take actions when some Northern Governors repatriated Almajiris back to their home states shows that the issue of security in Nigeria is being politicized.
According to him, nobody has the right to issue quit notice to any Nigerian living in any part of the country.
However, the human rights lawyer recalled that the government at the centre did not deem it necessary to arrest a Northerner who once asked Igbos living in the North to quit, saying, “it is going to be difficult and inequitable to go for Sunday Igboho.”