Oil and Gas expert, former Legal Adviser, Managing Counsel LegislativeDevelopment with Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, Barr. Madaki Ameh, has described as appalling the environmental practices of the company in its dealings with host communities in the Niger Delta.
This was contained in statement made available to Nigerian NewsDirect on Thursday by Barr. Ameh who is the Managing Partner, BBH Consulting, lamented that Shell has done more damage than good in the Niger Delta.
Ameh said that those practices have caused the host Communities in all the vast areas covered by Shell’s operations significant pain, loss of livelihood and severe poverty in the midst of plenty, contrary to the Multinational Corporation’s practices in other parts of the world where it operates.
He cited as a specific case in point the recent N800 Billion (about $2 billion) judgment awarded against Shell Petroleum Development Company and its parent companies, Shell B.V and Shell International Limited, as a confirmation of the contempt, arrogance and total neglect of Shell’s Corporate Social Responsibility towards its host communities in the Niger Delta.
He said, “The award which was handed down by the Federal High Court, Owerri Division on November 27th, 2020 in respect of a massive oil spill from Shell’s producing facilities in Egbalor Community in Eleme LGA of Rivers State in January 2019, which inundated the entire community’s farmlands, fishponds and their entire ecosystems, has remained unpaid to date, in spite of sustained efforts on the part of the Community to ensure that the devastation caused by the said spill to their livelihoods is addressed.”
He urged the International community, the media and environmental groups like Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and other such world renowned NGOs to come to the aid of the Egbalor Community to ensure that the judgment debt is settled and the community’s devasted ecosystem is remediated without any further delay.
He called on the regulatory agencies in the Nigerian Oil and Gas industry to hold operators like Shell fully accountable for all their irresponsible operations in the Niger Delta, in line with the best practices in the globalized industry.
He also tasked the Nigerian Government and the regulators to prevent Shell from disposing of its onshore and shallow offshore assets worth about $3billion, which it recently put up for sale and is currently receiving bids from unsuspecting local and international investors.
According to him, “Apart from the fact that such divestment at this time may result in Shell attempting to dissipate its assets as a clandestine strategy to escape liability, intending investors who acquire such assets may discover that they have taken over highly toxic assets which could expose them to huge liabilities in the near future, as the recent experience of Aiteo from the massive spill in Nembe Community in Bayelsa State in December 2021 shows.
“The application by Shell for a stay of execution of the judgment of the Federal High Court, Owerri, pending the hearing and determination of their appeal against the said judgment, and the applications by the lawyers to the community for the entire judgment debt of N800 billion with interest at 2% per annum from the date of judgment until final satisfaction (which has already amounted to over N20 billion) be paid into an interest yielding escrow account with the Court, comes up for hearing at the Court of Appeal, Owerri Division on Thursday, 24th February, 2022,” he stated.