Oil spillThe thorny issue of oil spillage and the debates around it are as old as when Nigeria began crude oil exploration in the Niger Delta region. But it was the 1970 oil spill in Ogoniland, which led to a £26m fine against Shell in Nigeria that eventually put the country in the eye of the storm globally. Many judgments have since been delivered against oil companies, the Nigerian government and/or their representatives and supervising agencies for the degradation of oil-bearing communities and losses of lives and property. However, the phenomenon has failed to abate, as the Federal Government, between 1970 and 2000, reported about 7000 spills. Given the country’s weak regulatory oversight, as well as poor data gathering capacity, statistics of data spill is, according to many experts, inaccurate and mainly underreported. Amnesty International had reported that since 2014, Eni alone had about 820 spills in the Niger Delta accounting for about 4.1 million litres. Also, since 2011, Shell reported 1, 010 spills, with 110, 535 barrels or 17.5 million litres lost.