As the federal government launches the clean-up of Ogoniland on Thursday, Amnesty International, AI, has requested Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, to take responsibility for the continuous oil and environment pollution in the Niger Delta.
The rights body said, in a statement issued on Tuesday, that the massive pollution from Shell’s oil facilities, including no fewer than 130 oil spills from its operations in 2015, has wrecked havoc on the environment, leading to several emergencies.
According to AI’s business and human rights campaigner, Joe Westby, “Scores of oil spills from Shell operations in the Niger Delta have yet to be properly cleaned up, and even sites the multi-national company claims to have cleaned remain polluted. To make matters worse, there were at least 130 oil spills from Shell operations in 2015.
“The Niger Delta is one of the most oil-polluted places in the world. That is because companies like Shell are failing to prevent or clean up spills years, sometimes decades, after they happen. Shell cannot rely on the Nigerian government to clean up its dirty work for it.”
Amnesty International expressed grief that despite causing thousands of Niger-Delta people their livelihood, Shell continues to shift blame and “lie about fictitious clean-ups” instead of accepting responsibility despite evidences showing its “grave guilt” in the environmental pollution of the oil-rich region.
Westby continued, “Whatever their cause, Nigerian law still says that the company which operates the pipeline has to clean up. That is something Shell has failed to do for decades.
“The start of the clean-up is a much-needed, long-awaited step for people who have lived with polluted waters and farmlands for decades. They have a right to be skeptical, they have seen clean-ups promised and people paid to do the work in the past, only for little improvements to be delivered. This time the rhetoric must translate into action on the ground.”
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