20 JUN

London High Court rules that Shell Nigeria could be legally liable for bunkering

In a groundbreaking legal ruling, the London High Court today decided that Shell Nigeria could be legally liable for illegal bunkering of its pipelines, if it failed to take reasonable steps to protect its infrastructure.

The judgment follows a ‘preliminary issues hearing’, which took place in May this year, which considered a range of complex legal arguments prior to a full trial in 2015.

The central issue being argued was whether Shell should take reasonable steps to protect its infrastructure given the foreseeable risk of bunkering, illegal hacking into pipelines to steal the oil.

This is the first time Shell has had to face formal Court proceedings in the UK for its environmental record in the Niger Delta, following two massive oil spills in 2008 and 2009 which resulted in the largest loss of mangrove habitat ever caused by an oil spill.

The legal action is being taken by London law firm Leigh Day which is representing 15,000 Nigerian fishermen and the Bodo Community, which was devastated by the oil spills, in one of the largest environmental law cases ever brought. Continue reading on LEIGH DAY website

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Post Author: OgoniNews

HURAC is a club instituted by the Movement For the Survival of the Ogoni People, which is open to all secondary schools within and outside Ogoni and also to all intending members. It`s currently operating in Riv-Poly secondary school, its division HQTRS, and also in CSS Bori, ACGS Bori, BMGS Bori and some Portharcourt schools. It has Kate, Wisdom Deebeke as its pioneer Senior Chief Co-ordinator. It was inaugurated in Riv-Poly by the INTELLECTUAL ELITE BATCH, with Tuaka Jeremiah as the appointed Chairman as at then. It aims at educating members and the public on their fundamental human rights, human rights advocacy, human rights abuses and campaign, etc. To learn more about HURAC, please go to http://huraclub.org/.