Ensure Shell compensate host communities before divesting – Activists
The Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has called on the federal government to ensure Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) pays for the several decades of environmental degradation in the Niger Delta region before they carry out their divestment plans.
The Right activists in a statement by the Communication Officer, Elvira Jordan, said this demand was informed by SPDCs plans to sell its onshore facilities to Renaissance, a conglomerate of five local oil companies.
Shell was the pioneer of Nigeria’s oil and gas exploration since the 1930s, with hundreds of oil spills traced to its operations in host communities that continue to suffer the consequences of pollution to their environment, health and livelihood.
Executive Director of ERA/FoEN, Barr Chima Williams faulted Shell for trying to run away from its crimes even with the uproar that has greeted its divestment plans in affected communities and among civil society organizations.
“As an organization that has tracked the activities of multinational oil companies for decades we insist that the decision of Shell to sell off its onshore facilities to domestic companies, with the intention of remaining in Nigeria to conduct their business offshore, is a deliberate attempt to evade the liabilities the company has incurred overtime. “
Williams also pointed out that Shell should not be allowed to abandon its onshore facilities to domestic companies without cleaning up the damage they have caused saying that local communities have been impoverished by their business activities.
“These communities who have played host to Shell for decades have been left in abject poverty, with several degrees of damage to their health and environment, while Shell explores their resources to enrich foreign coffers. Shell should not be allowed to sell off its facilities and abandon the liabilities they owe these communities.”
The Executive Director berated the federal government for placing the need for revenue above the lives and livelihood of Nigerians who have suffered from the decade long environmental pollution caused by Shell.
He called on President Bola Tinubu to ensure that Shell’s divestment plan is accompanied by full remediation plans in their various communities of operations, and full payments of loss and damages to host communities.
He also called for a close evaluation and monitoring of Shell’s offshore operations to checkmate the scope of their activities in order avert any impending damages to the environment.
