May 30, 2014

Ogoni: Environmental Activists Warn Shell To “Stop Playing Games”


Celestine Akpobari, Executive Director of Social Action, a Niger Delta rights advocacy group, demanded Shell to take responsibility of their actions that endangered the lives of so many in the Niger Delta. 

Below is an article by Premium Times:

Environmental activists have warned Shell Petroleum Development Company to stop playing games with the pains and misery of Ogoni people who are suffering due to the non-implementation of the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, report on Ogoniland.

The warning came following last week's surprise announcement by Shell's new Chief Executive Officer, Ben Van Beurden, that the $1billion dollar take off fund for Ogoni cleanup was waiting in a dedicated account.

Mr. Van Beurden, while responding to a question on UNEP Report from James Marriott of PLATFORM during Shell's UK Shareholder Meeting in London on 22 May, 2014, claimed that the money to implement the cleanup recommended by the UNEP'S Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland had been set aside in a "verifiable" account.

The Shell boss, however, added that the company had been unable to disburse the funds due to the "lack of structures" ready to receive the money and coordinate the cleanup, stating that: "many people in the Niger Delta would be interested in $1 billion."

On August 4, 2011, the UNEP released a damning report, which the Ogoni prefer to call "a death sentence," on the environmental devastation caused by oil exploration activities in Ogoniland.

The report confirmed that the integrity of the Ogoni environment has been heavily damaged and compromised by the oil industry; and that rather than support lives and livelihoods, it was killing the Ogoni people.

UNEP further made several recommendations to the Federal Government of Nigeria, its agencies, and Shell on ways for remedying the environmental situation.

Apart from the federal government setting up a largely dormant Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project, HYPREP, nothing has been done.

"Shell has the power to do anything it wants in Nigeria, including having our people killed as it has done in the past," said Celestine Akpobari, Executive Director of Social Action, a Niger Delta rights advocacy group. "But are we expected to believe that it does not have the power to arrange for the clean-up of its own mess? This is double standards and lies. How many more years will the Ogoni people have to wait for something to be done about their toxic environment?" Mr. Akpobari added.