Field Report 277: Women of JK4 (Edagberi/Betterland) stage peaceful protest against Shell
Wednesday, 12 October 2011

Re-posted from Environmental Rights Action (Friends of the Earth Nigeria)

GPS Coordinates:  Blocked bridge – Elev:9m, N 05°11.657’’, E006°29.574’’ and  Well 2 site – Elev:4m, N 05°11.655’’, E 006°29.574’’

Shell has not been fair to the community in terms of amenities says the leaders of the JK4 community, even though so much wealth is pumped out from our community soil daily. We have been drinking from the Taylor Creek that has often been polluted by crude oil spills from the company’s failed oil facilities. ERA/FoEN heard of a protest by women in the community and promptly visited the community.

JK4, otherwise known as Edagberi/Betterland community is a community in Ahaoda West local government area of Rivers State, Nigeria. It is located along the Taylor Creek, sharing boundaries with Biseni and Ikarama communities in Yenagoa local government area of Bayelsa State. Over forty oil wells operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company [SPDC], several crude oil pipelines and Shell’s Adibawa Flow Station are located within the community. Community leaders have complained in the past that Shell has not been fair to the community in terms of amenities, even though so much wealth is pumped out from the community soil daily. Without pipe borne water the people have been drinking from the Taylor Creek that has often been polluted by crude oil spills. ERA/FoEN heard of a protest by women in the community (10 October 2011) and promptly visited the community.

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Nigerians seek $1 billion from Shell for oil spills

By Mira Oberman | AFP – Thu, Oct 20, 2011

Re-posted from AFP

A Nigerian tribal king filed a lawsuit in a US court seeking $1 billion from Royal Dutch Shell to compensate for decades of pollution that sickened his people and damaged their lands, his lawyer said.

The suit was filed a day after the US Supreme Court said it will consider a lawsuit accusing Shell of human rights abuses in Nigeria in a landmark case that could make companies liable for torture or genocide committed overseas.

That case will assess the potential liability of corporations — including multinationals with a US presence — under the Alien Tort Statute, a US law dating back to 1789 that scholars say was meant to assure foreign governments that the United States would help prevent breaches of international law.

The latest case alleges that Shell’s Nigerian operations are “well below internationally recognized standards to prevent and control pipeline oil spills” because the Anglo-Dutch company “has not employed the best available technology and practices that they use elsewhere in the world.”

It cited a recent United Nations report that found that contamination was widespread in the Nigerian Delta after 50 years of oil extraction left groundwater badly contaminated and the soil soaked with hydrocarbons to depths of five meters.

The suit was brought on behalf of the people of Ogale in the Eleme local government area, where the UN team found the most serious groundwater contamination and people drinking water laced with cancer-causing benzene at 900 times World Health Organization guidelines.

Scientists found an eight centimeter layer of refined oil floating on the groundwater that served the wells. The oil was linked to a spill that had occurred six years earlier and was not properly cleaned up.

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photo credit: © Kadir van Lohuizen/NOOR

From the website of Amnesty International: http://blog.amnestyusa.org/business/shell-accused-over-misleading-figures-on-nigeria-oil-spills/

17 October 2011
Re-posted from AFP

WASHINGTON — The US Supreme Court said Monday it will consider a lawsuit accusing Royal Dutch Shell of human rights abuses, a case that could make companies liable for torture or genocide committed overseas.

The plaintiffs — relatives of seven Nigerians killed by the country’s former military regime — sued the Anglo-Dutch energy giant and other firms for apparently enlisting the government to suppress resistance to oil exploration in the Niger Delta in the 1990s.

The case will assess the potential liability of corporations — including multinationals with a US presence — under the Alien Tort Statute, a US law dating back to 1789 which scholars say was meant to assure foreign governments that the United States would help prevent breaches of international law.

The 12 Nigerian plaintiffs charge Shell with “complicity in human rights violations committed against them in the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta in Nigeria between 1992 and 1995,” according to their complaint put before the court.

“These violations included torture, extra-judicial executions and crimes against humanity.”

It said Shell “aided and abetted the Nigerian government in committing human rights abuses,” and added: “For the victims of human rights violations such cases often provide the only opportunity to obtain any remedy for their suffering.”

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image credit: Sweet Crude

Read the Reuters piece on the same subject

Environmental Rights Action Field Report #276: Shell’s dredging of River Nun spurs coastal erosion in Peremabiri community

Tuesday, 04 October 20

Re-posted from Environmental Rights Action (Friends of the Earth Nigeria)

To tell you the truth no one is comfortable with the way the River Nun is expanding while the community land is shrinking by the day. It is like a story now when we tell strangers that this community has lost over fifty meters of land in the last few years. And, if the trend should continue unchecked, we may join the monkeys in the swamps very soon. We are of the view that the dredging activities of Shell around us also have negative effect that is leading to the collapsing river banks and expansion of the River here. We are calling for assistance from government before we are wiped out from this location. What are we going to tell our children coming behind? – Maurice Jonathan

GPS Coordinate: Elev: -9m, N 04°38.395’, E006°04.910’

Peremabiri community is one among several Ijaw communities in Boma Clan of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area that settles along the Nun River. Farming and fishing are the major occupations of the people.  Apart from hosting the biggest rice farm [abandoned for several years now]in west Africa established by the moribund  Niger Delta Basin Development Authority [NDBDA], it is also host  to several oil wells including Shell’s Diebu Flow station, wellheads and pipelines.
Peremabiri has had its fair share of the negative impacts of oil exploration/exploitation activities: oil spills/fire and the effects of gas flaring that is still on-going at the flow station.
Information reached ERA/FoEN that the community was almost going into extinction due to river encroachment caused by dredging activities of Shell and because of this phenomenon it became necessary to visit the community and get an on-the-spot assessment of the situation.
ERA field monitors were led round the community by the current and past chairmen of Peremabiri Community Development Committee [CDC], Mr. Maurice Jonathan and Dickson Peresuote.

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photo:  Environmental Rights Action (Friends of the Earth Nigeria)

Group wants fair hearing for detained campaigner

By Ben Ezeamalu
September 4, 2011

Re-posted from NEXT

Sunny Ofehe

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has asked the Dutch authorities to give detained environmental campaigner and founder of Hope for Niger-Delta Campaign, Sunny Ofehe, a fair hearing when his case comes up for hearing on September 5.

ERA/FoEN’s call is predicated on the manner the Dutch authorities have so far handled the matter after Mr. Ofehe’s arrest and detention for unstated reasons.

Mr. Ofehe was arrested by Dutch authorities in Rotterdam on 22 February, 2011, and has been kept in detention since. The Dutch authorities initially kept mum over the reason for Mr. Ofehe’s arrest and denied anyone access to him except his lawyer who was barred from speaking to anyone on the matter.

Earlier reports from his clients indicated that the charge against Mr. Ofehe was based on people smuggling and forgery. This was subsequently substituted with terrorism which was hinged on tapped phone calls between him and an acquaintance in Nigeria in which Mr. Ofehe was said to have tried to come to an agreement to record bunkering of oil pipelines in the Niger Delta-region.

The questioned phone calls were said to have been intercepted during a massive investigation against the activist which was said to have started more than a year before his February arrest. Subsequently, his phones and computers were allegedly tapped and a camera placed in front of his office for three weeks.

“While we believe an accused is deemed innocent until otherwise proven, it is suspicious that what Ofehe was arrested for is not what he is now standing trial for,” said Nnimmo Bassey, ERA/FoEN’s Executive Director.

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In the wake of the first report cataloging the widespread oil spill damage in the Niger Delta reports of a new spill emerge.

Fresh oil spill seen near Shell pipeline in Nigeria’s restive southern oil delta

By Associated Press, Published: August 21
Reposted from The Washington Post

LAGOS, Nigeria — Community leaders in Nigeria’s oil-rich southern delta say a new oil spill has been seen near a Royal Dutch Shell PLC pipeline where a fire broke out earlier this week.

The oil sheen could be seen Sunday near the Okordia Rumuekepe trunkline in Bayelsa state, which is operated by Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary. The same trunkline saw a fire break out Friday.

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image source:  guardian.co.uk