January 29, 2021 will remain memorable to the oil-rich Niger Delta communities because that was the day the Appeal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, delivered a groundbreaking judgment on three separate lawsuits brought by four Nigerian farmers over oil spills in three villages: Goi, Oruma and Ikot Ada Udo, in Rivers and Bayelsa States respectively. The oil spills rendered the claimants’ farmlands and fishponds useless.
The court had declared that Royal Dutch Shell Subsidiary was liable for the spills that have devastated the above-mentioned communities in the Niger Delta. The judgments are said to be historic as it is the first time Shell’s parent company has been found liable for a ‘breach of duty of care’ regarding abuses committed abroad by its foreign subsidiary company.
Emmanuel Addeh
The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), has restated commitment to support the federal government goal of using the country’s proven gas reserves to trigger economic activities for gas-based industrialization.
SPDC’s Managing Director and Country Chairman of Shell Companies in Nigeria, Mr. Osagie Okunbor, said Shell’s support is shown in the company’s multi-billion dollars investment in four of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) ‘Seven Critical Gas Development Projects’.
Speaking at the Nigerian Gas Association’s 12th International Conference and Awards, held virtually with the theme, “Powering Forward: Enabling Nigeria’s Industrialization via Gas”, Okunbor stated that Shell has invested heavily in the Assa North Gas Project.
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Dennis Naku, Port Harcourt
Farmers in Okogbe clan, in the Ahoada West Local Government Area of Rivers State are counting their losses after an oil spill destroyed farmland, crops and fish ponds worth millions of naira.
It was gathered that two separate spills from Okordia-Rumuekpe pipeline operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company and Ogoda-Brass pipeline operated by the Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) occurred in the area around the middle of 2020.
Some of those affected claimed that the spills, which was not cleaned, was dispersed by flood into the surrounding communities, culminating in a fire which devastated farmlands, streams, forest and other sources of livelihoods
By Emmanuel Addeh
Several ethnic youth leaders, including the Arewa Consultative Youth Movement, Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo Youth Movement, Niger Delta Youth Council, Oduduwa Youths and Middle Belt Youth Council, have called for sanctions for any organisation sabotaging the country through the diversion of crude oil.
Speaking during a press conference in Abuja yesterday, members of the Council of Ethnic Youth Leaders of Nigeria, specifically demanded that the federal government should sanction Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Limited and its sister companies in Nigeria, for its complicity in the alleged diversion of 16 million barrels of crude oil.
They noted that the breach occurred at the Bonny Oil Terminal through the use of a manipulated and unapproved metering system, thereby understating the volume of crude oil which was pumped to the terminal.
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13 years had passed by the time a Dutch court ruled that Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary pay compensation for oil spills in the Niger Delta. Specifically, on January 2021 the Appeal Court ruled in favour of three out of the four Nigerian farmers holding that Shell must compensate them for the damages caused by the oil spill pollution. The Court also held that Shell International has “duty of care” to ensure that their Nigerian subsidiary behaves responsibly in its operations.
The farmers involved are Chief Fidelis Oguru and Mr Alali Efanga, from Oruma, a village in Bayelsa State, Chief Barizaa Dooh from Goi, a village in Rivers State, while Elder Friday Alfred Akpan is from Ikot Ada Udo, a village in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.