The Council of Ogoni Professionals International, a United States-based organisation, has given the federal government a thumb-up for slamming $5 billion fine on Shell over Bonga oil spill of December 2011.
Reacting to the judgement in a press statement made available to Journalists in New York on Thursday, Anslem D. John-Miller, the President of the Ogoni group, commended the federal government of Nigeria for finally deciding to bring Shell Oil to justice by slamming the fine on it.
the statement reads: “The Council of Ogoni Professionals in the US calls on the Nigerian Government to not only ensure Shell pays the $5bn fine but to also ensure that the money is spent judiciously on development projects that will benefit the impoverished communities of Southern Nigeria affected by the said oil spill.
“Moreover, we appeal to the Nigerian Government to go a step further and prevail on
Shell to pay compensation to the locals affected by the oil spill. The claim by Shell that the Bonga spill was caused by sabotage is hogwash and should be disregarded immediately.
“More so, the body of Ogoni professionals in the United States seizes this special opportunity to call on President Goodluck Jonathan to stop playing ethnic-politics with the implementation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report on Ogoni. We maintain that if Shell can pay $5bn fine for the Bonga Oil Spill without such a payment making any dent in the company’s coffers, then Shell can equally pay the $1bn recommended by the UNEP for the implementation of its ground-breaking report on
Ogoni without any stress on its profits”
“Furthermore, we maintain that Ogonis are not opposed to the clean-up of the entire Niger
Delta as President Jonathan would wish. However, the UNEP Report is for Ogoni and the
clean-up of Ogoniland will serve as a guide to any successful clean-up exercise in the entire Niger-Delta. We therefore appeal to President Jonathan to give his political blessings so that Shell can immediately take steps to implement the report which emanated from the reckless oil exploration and exploitative activities of the company in Ogoni since 1957.
“Finally, the umbrella body of Ogoni professionals reiterates that neither us (COP) nor the
Ogoni people in general will accept any partial or selective implementation of the UNEP Report as previously echoed by Nigeria’s Petroleum Minister, Mrs. Diezani Madueke sometime ago.”
