The people of Bodo Community in Ogoni area of Rivers state have said the ban on oil exploration in the area is still in force despite the £55m compensation from Shell.
Oil giant, Shell, paid the sum of £55m (about N15.4bn) as compensation to residents of Bodo where two oil spills occurred in August and December 2008.
Meanwhile, Spokesperson of Bodo Community, Sylvester Ndigbara said the court ruling that mandated Shell to pay the compensation did not mandate the community to do oil business with shell.
Ndigbara said the ban on oil exploration in Bodo is an Ogoni agenda which is being followed to the latter.
He also explained that an individual in that community was entitled to about 600,000 from the 35 million pounds individual compensation. While the remaining 20 million pounds is reserved for the benefit of the community.
He said, “The 55 million pounds does not allow shell to come and take our oil. This arrangement does not cover that. That is a general Ogoni issue. It is not perculiar to only Bodo.
“The people are very happy about the compensation. An individual will get an average of 600,000 and maybe more.
“And that will go a long way to help to assuage the loss of income of the past years. It will help them to start small scale business. Any moment from now, the money will be paid,” he said.
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