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ERA Monitor Report No. 8: Six Year Old Spillage in Botem-Tai INTRODUCTION The Ogoni people of Botem in Tai local government area of Rivers state are unhappy over the manner Shell is employing to consign a major oil spill which occurred six years ago in their community into the dustbin of oil spillage history. The people are demanding for a proper and independent assessment of the spill; the immediate clean-up of the affected areas; and the payment of fair and adequate compensation for the damage done on the faunistic and floristic endowments of Botem-Tai. Following international campaign by ERA, ACTION AID and MOSOP, Shell last March moved swiftly to put the spillage behind them. It doled out N15 million naira to one of its registered agent, OFOMA ASSOCIATES, for onward "disbursement" to all the affected communities and individuals. The amount is that which was "approved by SPDC to genuine beneficiaries" according to Shell registered agent, Gab. U. Ofoma, the principal consultant in the firm of Ofoma Associates. Botem-Tai received N3.9 million of the approved film. In this Monitor Report, ERA examines the refusal of Shell to clean up their "injurious ecological mess", the imposition of a CLAIM AGENT on the people of the Botem-Tai community and the unwholesome pressure mounted on the community which made it to accept paltry sums of money as compensation. This report also exposes the often repeated lie by Shell that thou pulled out of Ogoni in January 1993. THE SPILL On the 15th of June 1993 one of Shell's numerous pipelines that criss-cross Ogoni, gave way to corrosion and spewed crude oil into the surrounding environment of Botem. It was a major spill. Independent sources put the amount of crude oil spilled at over 2,000 barrels. The spill affected the Osadegha stream which runs through several communities, farmlands, sacred places and essential water sources. Chief Fabian Ndine, paramount ruler of Botem was away when the spill occurred. When he returned to the village, he was informed of the environmental disaster. "I immediately led a team to Shell where I reported the spill on the 18th of June 1993", said Chief Ndine. The Chief told ERA that he pleaded with Shell officials to come with him to Botem to stop their spill from travelling farther than it is at the time. Shell assured the Chief that they would "mobilise a technical crew to Botem immediately". Upon his return to the community, he informed his people that Shell would be coming very soon to stop the spill. Shell never came as promised. After waiting for 18 days without the promised visit of a "technical crew", the Chief on the 5th of July was empowered by the community to take the matter to "our leader Ken Saro-Wiwa". On the 6th of July, Chief Ndine travelled to Owerri, Imo State, to meet Ken Saro-Wiwa in detention. He informed the environmentalist of the spill. He was shocked and promised to do something. ERA investigation in Ogoni, Port Harcourt and Canada revealed that Ken sent a message to the Shell General Manager (East) and the Managing Director in Lagos on the spill. The spill continued for a total of six weeks before Shell "grudgingly came to stop it. I think they thought it was sabotage," says a MOSOP activist in Port Harcourt. It later turned out to be the fault of Shell, but by this time so much damage has been done, "say Chiefs Fabian Ndine. BOTEM AND THE STRUGGLE FOR ECOLOGICAL JUSTICE When the community confirmed that the source of the spill had been identified and sealed by Shell to prevent further spillage, they demanded that the company "should immediately contain its ravaging crude and clean the area affected. We were then entering that period of rainy season when it pours in buckets and erodes in sheets," says an environmentalist from the area who now works as a volunteer for a local environmental group in Port Harcourt. "We were worried that the oil which had been left for six weeks uncontained will be ferried far and wide because of the erosion," Chief Fabian added. More requests for help were sent to Shell in June and July without any positive response. The community contacted an expert estate surveyor and valuer Mr. Batom Mittee, the younger brother of the exiled acting President of MOSOP, Mr. Ledum Mitee, to do an assessment of the damage in preparation to seeking ecological redress. As soon Batom began his work as authorised by the community, "persons working for Shell" instigated all kinds of delay tactics to frustrate his work. Their weapons included a law suit! The community remained undaunted, preferring peaceful avenues to seek redress. They won the case and Batom was further empowered to go ahead with the work. However, the web of intrigues were intensified when security agencies began making life difficult for Batom. It was said by members of Botem-Tai that Batom could not complete the job. Several experts from Europe and Nigeria visited Botem-Tai between October 1993 and October 1995. In 1998 ERA sent a team to the spill site. Among the experts were an English trained valuer, environmentalist and human ecologist, Mr. Nicholas Aston Jones the then Pronatural Africa Representative, Ms Sarah Leigh Lewis of ACTION AID, a British Charity and Mr. Oronto Douglas an environmental human rights Lawyer then Chief Field Officer of Environmental Rights Action (ERA). All these independent voices supported those of the community and MOSOP for immediate cleanup, restoration and adequate compensation to the affected people."Several letters were written to Shell to do something very urgently but they ignored us. They hid under the guise of 'staff safety' to continue waging their relentless ecological war on our people", says Mr. Patrick Naagbantan, a freelance environmental journalist based in Port Harcourt. The people saw the issue of fear of staff safety as mere smokescreen. According to Chief Fabian Ndike: "No one would harass them (Shell) if they come for the genuine reason of cleaning their six year old spill. When they came to find and locate the spill point were they harrassed? I had personally assured them of my co-operation and the co-operation of the people of Botem. The spill occurred in one of our very essential arteries for survival - the Osadegha stream. We depend on it for drinking, for fishing and to water our crops. I cannot understand Shell". SPILL EXPOSES CORPORATE LIES FOR THE UMPEENTH TIME The six-year-old Shell spill at Botem has exposed a number of false claims that Shell had propagated abroad between 1994 and 1997 with respect to the spill. Shell told the world: (a) That they pulled out of Ogoni in January of 1993. (b) That they had no access to Ogoni because of the MOSOP's ban and therefore (c) Could not go to Botem to do the cleaning. This position is not true. ERA investigators found that contrary to Shell's claim of not pumping oil out of Ogoni in 1993, the company was doing so surreptitiously and through sophisticated equipments. An oil industry expert told ERA that Shell simply put its "equipment on the automatic when they left. This ensured that oil was flowing. The only problem was that they were not physically on the ground in case of emergency". This will explain the spill in Botem in June of 1993 and that of Korokoro in October 1993 and January 1994. Ordinarily the only spill that could "occur in Ogoni after Shell's alleged pull out will be on trunk pipes from other areas and which are going to the Bonny Terminal, that is if a spill must occur at all", says an Ogoni teacher in Port Harcourt. Era learnt that the spill in Botem was from a flowline. Again, ERA found that Shell's refusal to come to the aid of the Botem people when the spill occurred was not due to "safety of staff and the hostility of natives" as Shell official claimed last week. In October of 1993, four months after the Botem spillage, Shell sent a fire truck to Korokoro ostensibly to put out a fire". The company claimed it got a "telephone message" from Ogoni. There is no telephone in the whole of Tai local government area where Korokoro, Botem Kpite, Chara, Ueken, etc, are. It was a carefully crafted hoax. ERA learnt that Shell got angry and invited Major Paul Okuntimo to undertake a punishment expedition couched as "mission to rescue our fire truck". What followed the invasion of Korokoro is now well known. Shell has access when it wants to have access as the Korokoro invasion showed. COMPENSATION: HOW DID SHELL ARRIVE AT 3.9 MILLION NAIRA FOR BOTEM? Following international campaigns Shell became apprehensive. They contacted Ofoma Associates, a Port Harcourt based firm of real estate surveyors, valuers and rating, with offices in Lagos, Nnewi and Onitsha. The firm actually is a registered agent of Shell. According to Chief Fabian "we did not contact Ofoma Associates. We hired Batom Mittee. We don't know who hired Ofoma". It is instructive that the community that suffered most does not know who is representing them until the company wrote to the people to present the situation as a fait accompli. ERA gathered that there were subtle threats from Shell and its agents that the community would lose every thing if they refused to co-operate. The Ogoni people having been so battered by Okuntimo, decided to play along with Ofoma. In a letter dated 21/11/97 and signed by Gab. U. Ofoma of Ofoma Associates, the behind the scene games of Shell was revealed. "With reference to the above subject matter (the Botem oil spillage you are cordially invited for a short meeting in our office on Monday 1st December 1997 at 10.00 am to agree on the best line of approach towards a peaceful disbursement of funds approved by SPDC to genuine beneficiaries". The said letter was copied to 14 persons with the Chief of Botem listed as No. 1. In that meeting Ofoma Associates revealed that N15 million was approved by Shell for compensation. Those at the meeting were shocked. How did Shell arrive at the figure? Was there any independent verification of the valuation? WHY WAS SHELL IN A HURRY TO PAY COMPENSATION IN 1997 FOR A SPILL THEY NEVER BOTHERED ABOUT SIX YEARS AGO? In a letter dated 8th December to Shell's Victor Dania, Head Community Relations, Botem's Lawyer, Mr. A.N. Anosiko, wrote: "Upon the initial contacts made in this regard in your company by the agents (that the community's) by way of letters and personal contacts with your officials, the officials of your company then directed all concerned to Ofoma and Associates whom were informed had been consulted to handle the matter for your company". Meetings were subsequently held with the Shell agent whom Shell had already approved N15 million disbursement. Shell dictated how much was to be paid, who is to get what, when and how. The lawyer rejected the sum meant for Botem in the letter of 8th December and called for "a reassessment of the parameters used in arriving at the distribution with a view to increasing the amount for Botem community as a whole. Until this is looked into we request that there should be no payments out of the said spillage money as not to defeat this protest which is being made on firm ground". Shell refused. It began its familiar game of divide and rule. The company proceeded to pay monies due to Bunu, Gbeneue, Kpite, Nonwa and Kira. Obviously the amounts paid to these communities by Shell could not have been adequate compensation for the damage done. They had no way of knowing because NO INDEPENDENT EVALUATORS WERE ALLOWED TO ASSESS THE LEVEL OF DAMAGE. The company also threatened that any community that refused to accept the money would have its money paid into the treasury of the Rivers State government. If this happened the money would be as good as lost.Agrieved communities would then have to bribe officials of the ministry of finance and have to wait on the mercies of the bureaucracy. It could take years. Also, ERA gathered that subtle mention was dropped in Botem and the affected communities that "compensation agitators who give Shell any problem may be dragged to the yet to be disbanded Ogoni Civil Disturbances Tribunal. That Tribunal had only recently unjustly sent Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists to the gallows. Faced with these dangerous options the Botam community accepted cheques from Ofoma Associates in the following values: N2, 543,569.70, N978, 306.42 and N391, 322.57. ERA Director, Mr. Nnimmo Bassey, said: "The case shows very clearly that Shell is the polluter, the assessor and the god father. It is Shell who must decide how much a victim of its pollution can receive. Lawyers would say that they Shell, are both the accusers the jury. There is no justice." In Monitor Report No. 5 we showed that the rate used by government and the oil companies oil-related compensation are the same. They are into a joint venture. We pointed out that the amount paid to the Osubi people was nothing but robbery. The victims of pollution are helpless and hapless. When will they get justice? WHAT SHELL MUST DO
WHAT CAMPAIGNERS CAN HELP US DO
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