Olamide Martins Ogunlade, Program Manager on Climate Change at the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation (CAPPA), has demanded that Shell must compensate communities and individuals that have been affected by the oil company’s activities in the Niger Delta region as it plans to leave Nigeria.
Martins Ogunlade made this demand during a peaceful protest staged by community members and rights groups at the Shell Headquarters in Lagos.
Ogunlade noted that “divestment plans are underway and the government seems to be at a loophole, not deciding enough to cater for the health of those in the frontline communities.
“We are worried about the plan of government and the porosity of government policies that allow divestment of Shell without proper commensurate compensation for those that are affected in the frontline communities.”
Ogunlade also shared CAPPA’s awareness of Shell’s plan to sell its assets to local entities, stressing that “we are worried about the capacity of these local entities to inherit liabilities. We know they don’t have what it takes to pay up the liabilities incurred by Shell and the government seems to be up in bed with Shell.”
“We are saying no to the unholy matrimony, we are breaking this, as a matter of fact, as we hope that those in the Frontline community will at least have a chance to breathe in their own country.”
Also speaking, Zikora Ibeh, Policy and Research Analyst at CAPPA said “we will continue to call for accountability from Shell, Chevron and all other big oil majors who continue to profit all our resources without giving us anything back in return.”
“We are also calling on the Nigerian government to do what is right, to stand on the side of people and demand that these companies, Chevron, Shell and all the big oil majors that have profited all off the mystery and part of people in the Niger Delta pay up for their sins, own up.”
Ibeh also stressed that “Shell must pay compensation to the people whose livelihoods have been ruined, to the people that can no longer breathe, to the people who are suffering major hurt and damage.
“Shell must also not be allowed to leave danger in the soil, water and anywhere across the Niger Delta, rather Shell must decommission their toxic asset.
“We want our water to turn as blue as it was, we want our fish to return as swimming as they were in the waters. We can’t have dead fish, we can’t have oil-polluted lands and Shell would leave. It will never work.” She expressed
For his part, Cadmus Alake-Enade, Programme Manager, Community and Culture, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), said, “the people in Niger Delta communities are supposed to be living in heaven but at the moment they are all living in hell as a result of Shell’s irresponsibility and impunity.”
“Shell needs to restore the Niger Delta coastal environment, communities’ life, the health of the people because the people in the Niger Delta have lost their livelihood, wellbeing, even their sense of belonging, they no longer belong to their own community all because they are being oppressed.”
He explained, “For any divestment to be done, there needs to be restoration of the environment, decommissioning of rusted pipelines and destroyed equipment that are left in the Niger Delta. We are calling on Shell today to clean up the mess before devesting.”