Yesterday, activists and community leaders united in a call for Shell to rectify the environmental damage it allegedly caused during its oil extraction operations in Nigeria before departing. Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) and Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) mobilized in Lagos to amplify this demand, revealing Shell’s purported intention to exit Nigeria.
Akinbode Oluwafemi, Executive Director of CAPPA, emphasized the urgency of the matter as Shell’s top brass assembled for their Annual General Meeting in the UK. Meanwhile, in front of Shell’s Lagos headquarters, grievances accumulated over time were reiterated, underscoring the ongoing need for accountability.
“Indeed, Shell’s shareholders would rather choose the comfort of the Intercontinental London Hotel, to review their deceitful and environmental devastation strategies without any regard for the dignity and sanity of people who are at the receiving end of their hazardous operations.
“They would rather the cozy ambiance of artificial nature than care about the growing impact and problems their reckless oil extraction inflicts upon vulnerable communities in Africa and elsewhere.
“In Nigeria, the absurdity reaches new heights as Shell sets to divest its onshore business and offload its toxic assets to Renaissance, a consortium of five companies, including four local exploration and production entities and an international energy group.
“This polluting corporation, after decades of mindless operations in the country’s Niger Delta region, is about to flee from its atrocities, leaving behind a wake of destruction, of farmlands and water bodies now contaminated with huge deposits of petroleum and of poor communities, livelihoods, and public health wrecked by years of its merciless extractive onslaught.
“Additionally, Shell allegedly intends to provide a loan to these buyers to help them purchase the same assets. This shameless ploy to offload liabilities while continuing to profit from the transaction reveals the depth of Shell’s exploitation and the lengths it will go to maintain its stranglehold on Nigeria’s resources while evading accountability.”
Executive Director of HOMEF, Rev. Nnimmo Bassey, said: “We want an independent and comprehensive assessment of the environment of the entire Niger Delta and an open and comprehensive health audit of the people living in extractive communities across the Niger Delta.
“We want a cleanup, remediation, and restoration of all polluted and contaminated areas linked to Shell’s extractivism and that Shell and Chevron should be held accountable for the destruction of communities in the Niger Delta, among others.”
