Media Round-Up: Democracy Now Interviews Emem Okon of Niger Delta on Being Barred from Chevron Meeting, Niger Delta Protests Against Chevron
Posted by jinn on May 28th, 2010
Emem Okon of Kebetkache Women Development & Resource Centre, Nigeria, Photo by Jonathan McIntosh of RAN
Nigerian grassroots women’s leader, Emem Okon, who traveled half way around the world from the Niger Delta, was barred from entering the Chevron shareholder’s meeting Wednesday, May 26 even though she was a legal proxy holder. She had come to urge Chevron to clean up the environment in her community, where gas flaring, oil spills and pollution plague them on a daily basis. Ms. Okon was among 17 community members from around the world who were not allowed in. Five members of the True Cost of Chevron coalition were arrested at the meeting.
Amazon Watch reported that Shelley Alpern, Vice-President at Trillium Asset Management Corporation was also outraged at Chevron’s actions, stating, “I attend several shareholder meetings every year and I have never seen a company deny entry to legal proxy holders. This is outrageous and reflects very poorly on our company’s respect for the laws that govern our proxy process. The shareholders in attendance today should stand forewarned not to say anything critical or it could be you next year.”
See Emem Okon’s interview on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman and outside the shareholder’s meeting.
The news that the Nigerian delegation was barred from entering was reported in Pambazuka, This Day, IndieNews, Youth Climate Blog among others. See other excerpts from the activists’ gathering outside the Chevron shareholders’ meeting on youtube.
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Right before the shareholder’s meeting, community members from the Ekpan community in the Niger Delta held a protest against Chevron’s operations in their homelands. Community members said Chevron failed to honor an agreement with the community established in 2001.
Protest Paralyses Chevron Operations in Warri (May 25, 2010)
Warri — Activities at the Warri administrative office of Chevron Nigeria Limited(CNL) came to a standstill yesterday following a protest embarked upon by women and youths from Ekpan Community in Uvwie Local Government Council of Delta State, which resulted in the dumping of two coffins in front of the gate. Read more in AllAfrica.com.
AMY GOODMAN: Emem Okon, you came from Nigeria for the Chevron shareholders’ meeting.
EMEM OKON: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: From the Niger Delta. Why?
EMEM OKON: Yeah, I came from all the way from the Niger Delta region of Nigeria to be at the Chevron shareholders’ meeting. I came to represent the voices of the community women in the Niger Delta region that are suffering the direct impact of Chevron oil and gas activities in the Niger Delta. And what I witnessed on Wednesday during the shareholders’ meeting is a demonstration of the lack of respect of human rights by Chevron. Chevron has a beautiful human rights policy, where they guarantee a two-way communication between the community people and Chevron. But on Wednesday, they outrightly did not respect even their own human rights policy. What happened is a confirmation and a demonstration of the abuse of human rights in the Niger Delta region by Chevron. It’s the demonstration by the use of brutal force by Chevron to suppress the indigenous people of the Niger Delta region. It’s a direct demonstration of the fact that Chevron does not listen to the voices of the people, to the complaints of the people, to the plight and conditions of the people of the Niger Delta communities.
I came to tell Chevron that they have oppressed in the Niger Delta region with impunity for the past fifty years, poisoning our waters, devastating our environment, killing the fish we eat, burning poison gas through gas flares in the Niger Delta that has caused cancer, asthma, corroding our roofs. And they have not done anything to alleviate the sufferings of the people as a result of their—as the result of their activities. And what they did on Wednesday was a demonstration of the fact that they are not ready to change their mode of oppression in the Niger Delta region, and they are not ready to recognize and respect the human rights of the people, and they are not ready to change the inhumane way they treat the communities in which they oppress.
I am surprised at the attention that the BP oil spill has attracted in the United States, and I expect that the condition in the Niger Delta should attract the same coverage and that the international community should impress it on Chevron and every other oil community to stop their inhuman activity and abuse of human rights in the Niger Delta region.
