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ERA Monitor Report: Shell in the Niger Delta 1997/98 BACKGROUND The middle of MAY every year is usually the time when Shell the Anglo-Dutch oil giant puts its public relations arsenal into full works. This has been the situation since the multinational was implicated in the events that led to the unfair trial and subsequent murder of the nine Ogoni nationalists, including Nigeria's foremost environmental campaigner Kenule Beesam Saro-Wiwa in 1995. This year 1998 will not be different. As the share holders gather in the Hagues and London. Shell will say: we have spent $32 million on "community development, $94 million on projects with environmental benefits but that budget for work in 1997 was cut by 40%. This will affect remediation of old sites, up grades to facilities and flow line replacement. Community unrest in many parts of the Niger Delta much of it caused by the re-drawing of local government boundaries affected operations in the swamp areas." In this brief report to Sierra-club, ERA goes beyond these spurious and unverifiable statistics to the local communities where the Shell claims becomes a dream not yet realised. Shell is yet to tell the world: how many polluted sites are there in its areas of operation in the Niger Delta? How many has the oil giant restored to its original state as required by law? What is the level of compliance with local and international legal instruments on the environment especially the African Charter of Human and People Rights (ACHPR) 1981? The charter says in Article 24: "All peoples shall have a right to a safe and satisfactory environment favourable to their development". SHELL'S ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE STILL UNACCEPTABLE Contrary to Shell's claim of "continuous environmental improvement", ERA can reveal that the multinational continues to carry out its operations in the Niger Delta in a manner that is careless of the environment. This has implication for the health of the environment and the livelihood of local people. We give three 1998 example below. SHELL'S DREDGING KILL MARINE LIFE AT OKERENKOKO, JONES CREEK Shell as a routine carry out dredging of creeks and canalisation of wetlands in the Niger Delta. These activities are carried out without Environmental Impacts Assessments. The implication for marine life is enormous. In March 1998 a Shell contractor Dumez was assigned to dredge the Jones creek area near Okerenkoko. The heavy dredgers of the company churned out the belly of the creek and made the water turbid and dark. The dredge spoils were also deposited on the banks of the creek. Several fishes and at least one crocodile were found floating on the creek, dead. The period of the dredging is quite sensitive: Fish breeding and migration into hinter land begin about this period. SHELL AND SPILL CONTROL: ADAMIC CLEAN UP METHODS SETS FORESTS ON FIRE Peaceful Aleibiri community in Ekeremor local government of Bayelsa had its serene beauty violated in March when a Shell-inspired fire caused the destruction of almost 15 hectares of forest and also pandemonium. A controversal oil spill which occurred on the 18th of March 1997 was left uncleared until September 1997. When the clean up "started in October, two pollutions occurred "within the pollution" on the 27/10/97 and 10/11/97 because of the careless way the contractor of Shell went about the cleaning exercise. An attempt by the contractor to set the contaminated debris on fire as directed by Shell led to total conflagration. Fifteen hectares of forest including local gin factories, boats, economic trees etc were lost in the inferno. No remediation, relief materials or compensation had been forwarded to the community". OLD RUSTY PIPES CONTINUE TO SPEW CRUDE INTO THE ENVIRONMENT Pollution occassioned by equipment fairlure (read old rusty pipes) continue to occur despite Shells claim that they have "replaced all flowlines" and pipes above 15 years in the swamp areas of the Niger Delta". A twenty-eight (28) years old pipe spewed over twenty thousand (20,000) barrels of crude at its Jones creek oil field area in March. Jones creek is advertised as a state of the art facility by the oil giant. The spill affected over twenty communities with a population placed at over 200,000 people. Interestingly the company did not parrot "sabotage" as it want to. Elsewhere in the Delta, a 2,000 barrel spill at Obrigbene was described by Joshua Udofia the controversial General Manager Shell West (he has been linked to several armed invasions of local communities in the Niger Delta: Umuechem, Korokoro and Ekeremor-zion) as "sabotage". The community is contesting the Shell claims. SHELL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS Shell continues to support the use of military personnel in its areas of operations. New Shell projects are shielded by the military amidst community peaceful agitation for environmental justice. Previous atrocities committed by Shell in collaboration with the military which they had all along denied were brought to light by ERA. This forced the company to accept qualified blame. They now claim they did it "under duress". SHELL PROCURED AND FINANCED THE ARMED INVASION OF KOROKORO VILLAGE IN OGONI The armed invasion of Korokoro village in Ogoni in October 1993 was at the behest of the Anglo-Dutch multinational oil giant Shell. A seventeen (17) year old youth Uebari Nnah) was shot in the head, a seventy (70) year old man (Papa Ndah) was shot through the stomach (the bullet missed vital organs by inch) and a school boy, Monday Nte had his buttocks disfigured on that fateful 23rd day of October 1993. Shell procured the soldiers of the dreaded internal security task force led by Major Paul Okuntimo who had earlier gotten inputs from Shell for his "wasting operations" in Ogoni. The company provided the vehicles and paid huge allowances to the soldiers who went to invade the peaceful village of Korokoro. Shell now says in a response to our report to the Ecumenical Community for Corporate Responsibility that: "The payment of field allowance to Nigerian military personnel happened only once, under duress at Korokoro in 1993. SPDC has made it clear that it will not happen again". ERA can reveal that Shell continues to pay field allowance to soldiers in the areas of the Niger Delta. Shell's new airport at Osubi has military backing against local agitation. Eighteen soldiers deployed to the airport to ensure that the airport is constructed at all cost were paid allowances. Also military personnel sent to protect Shell installations at Ogulagha (Forcados) are all paid field allowances by Shell. NEMBE: THE ARMED TYPE OF DIALOGUE FAVOURED BY SHELL Early this year the youths of Nembe embarked on peaceful demonstration throughout Nembe-Ibe (Nembe Kingdom) against the activities of Shell. Five flowstations were shut down and a number of river crafts seized. Since Nembe is the biggest concentration of Shell's oil activities the company became worried (See ERA Field Report 1998. The Oiled Rage of the Nembe Communities). Shell in an attempt to have its flowstations re-opened asked for dialogue. At the venue of the meeting, Shell invited armed policemen whose presence intimidated the youths. The meeting broke up. "We were intimidated by the armed police which Shell brought to the venue of peaceful discussion. We cannot discuss in an atmosphere of fear and intimidation", James a youth leader said. Elsewhere in the Niger Delta Shell continue to work under military shield. Seismic contractors to the company work with armed military personnel who wear mufti. They sometimes shoot into the air to scare local people. These acts of intimidation were reported during the Okoroba and Kilo 3d surveys. PARENTS OF THE TWO BOYS KILLED IN A SHELL WASTE PIT YET TO GET JUSTICE Parents of the two little boys aged 6 and 7 who died in a Shell waste pit negligently abandoned by the company in Orhoakpor town, Ethiope East Local Government of Delta State are yet to get justice five years after the gruesome incident ERA can now reveal. Master Stephen Idoghor and Omote Amigboro died in 1993 while at play in the waste of Orhoakpor pit area, Shell never thought it wise to fence of death trap and have the waste pit they dug refilled and restored. Similar deaths of children in abandoned Shell facilities have been reported in the Akwa Ibom area of the Niger Delta, in the past. BATOM MITEE IS DYING BATOM MITEE, member of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People and younger brother of the acting MOSOP President Mr. Ledum Mitee is dying in his cell at the Delta Rubber Plantation , Odogwa in Etche local government of Rivers State. A release signed by the pro-democracy, human and environmental rights movement in Rivers and Bayelsa States this March 19 disclosed that the detainee is "showing symptoms of joint pains, high blood pressure, cardiac problem and related diseases" which the organisations say are linked to the brutality he is suffering in the hands of the Rivers State Internal Security Task Force, RSISTF. Earlier, MOSOP had said on March 18 that Mitee "is confirmed to be afflicted with hernia, general body pains, especially at the joints". The movement gave its sources as a recently released detainee and its intelligence officers. Mitee was abducted last January 3, the eve of the Ogoni Day celebration by men of the RSISTF at Bori, the traditional headquarters of the Ogoni People. He was beaten to pulp and detained at a secret location in Bori before being transferred to the Zamani Lekwot Military Cantonment, Bori Camp, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. He was later removed from there to his present location. He has been denied access to family, friends, associates, doctors and his lawyers. No formal charges have been brought against him. MOSOP suggests that Major Obi Umahi, head of the RSISTF was "overheard on January 3 vowing to a senior security offficer at Bori to deal with the Ogoni, especially the Mitee family", adding that government regrets sparing the life of Ledum Mitee who stood trial along with Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995. Born about 38 years ago at K-Dere, his home town in Gokana local government council of Rivers State, Batom Mitee, single, earned a Bachelor of Technology degree in Quantity Surveying from the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt. He worked briefly with the Federal Mortgage Bank,Lagos before going into private business. He is the proprietor of Klymax Hotels with offices in Bori and Port Harcourt Family sources say after his arrest at Bori, men of the RSISTF raided his two offices as well as his older brother's law firm, L.A. Mitee & Associates at #21 Station Road, Port Harcourt and looted the place under the guise of searching for 'subversive' materials. ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS ACTION #13 Agudama Street, D-Line, Port Harcourt #42 William Harvey House, Whitlock Dr., London SW19 6SQ Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club |
