As the world marks one year of one of the release of the the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) report in Ogoniland, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People says the Nigerian government has not shown sufficient commitment to the implementation of the report insisting that government has only paid lip service to the precarious situation in Ogoni.
Spokesman for the movement and interim committee chairman Chief Emmanuel Nkala says government actions so far has shown that the Nigerian government and Shell has no value for Ogoni lives.
“In an area where people are dying by the day, government does not see the need to expedite action on the implementation of the report” he says.
Chief Nkala maintains that the first action the government should have taken is to suspend Shell’s operating license similar to the way the license of Dana Airlines was withdrawn after the recent crash that killed scores”.
In Ogoni, Shell’s activities have killed thousands of people, Shell has bought arms for the killing the of Ogoni people, Shell has sponsored attacks against the Ogoni people and the effects of their activities have killed the land. I think a proper action against Shell should have been the withdrawal of their license to operate in Nigeria.
The UNEP report had highlighted grave dangers to human and environmental health due to Shell’s activities in Ogoniland for over 50 years.
Similarly, rights group Amnesty International said Friday investigations into Shell oil spills in Nigeria were a “fiasco,” alleging the company repeatedly blamed sabotage in an effort to avoid responsibility.
“No matter what evidence is presented to Shell about oil spills, they constantly hide behind the ‘sabotage’ excuse and dodge their responsibility for massive pollution that is due to their failure to properly maintain their infrastructure,” Audrey Gaughran, director of global issues at Amnesty, said in a statement.
She said that “the investigation process into oil spills in the Niger Delta is a fiasco,” referring to the oil-producing region that is home to Africa’s largest crude industry.
The London-based rights group accused the Anglo-Dutch oil major of ignoring evidence that the latest spill in the Delta’s Bodo Creek area, discovered in June, was caused by pipeline corrosion.
Bodo Creek saw two major oil spills in 2008 over which the Anglo-Dutch petroleum giant is being sued in a London court by 11,000 Bodo residents.
In the statement, Amnesty said it hired the US company Accufacts to examine pictures of the Bodo Creek pipeline over the June spill.
According to Amnesty, the company said it noticed a “layered loss of metal on the outside of the pipe,” which is “a very familiar pattern” consistent with corrosion.
“Shell have said locally that the spill looks like sabotage, and they completely ignore the evidence of corrosion,” said Stevyn Obodoekwe of the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development, which co-authored the Amnesty statement.
“This has generated a lot of confusion and some anger in the community,” he added.
Source: OgoniNews
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