Rights group applauds Dutch Court’s ruling in favour of four Nigeriian farmers
Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth,Nigeria ( ERA/ FoEN) has applauded the decision of a Dutch Court of Appeal in favour of four Bayelsa farmers impacted by oil spills.
The Dutch Court had on Friday, ordered the Nigerian subsidiary of Shell to pay compensation over oil spills in Bayelsa.
The Court of Appeal in the Hague ruled that the Nigeriian arm of the British- Dutch company should compensate the four farmers and clean- up pollution from leaking oil pipelines.
Four farmers from Oruma in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa dragged Shell to a Dutch Court over a 2008 oil spill that adversely affected their farms
Reacting to the judgement, Executive Director at ERA/FoEN,Chima Ubani said the” Court has set a new standard that will give hope to ordinary citizens that no matter how powerful a company is, there will always be a day of reckoning.
According to him, the court’s decision” will determine whether or not transnational companies will be obliged respond in a swift and positive way when Environmental complaints are made from their host country.
” This case has taken so long that two claimants are no longer alive But the problems caused by the immense oil spill from Shell’s pipelines have still not been resolved after 13 years. It hurts that this can happen.
However, the Judgement of the Dutch Court did not go well with Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) as the company’s management said it was disappointed by the verdict insisting that the incident in question was caused by sabotage.
SPDC Media Relations Manager, Bamidele Odugbesan told reporters on Friday that most leaks from its operations were caused by vandals.
Odugbesan said sabotage,crude oil theft and illegal refining are a major challenge in the Niger Delta.
He said in 2019, around 95% of spill incidents from the company’s operations in Oruma and Goi were due to criminal acts adding “regardless of cause,we clean up and remediate,as we have done with the spills in this case.”
