BENIN CITY- The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) yesterday called on civil society organizations (CSOs) and local communities to immediately put in place negotiating teams even as it lampooned Shell for its move to divest from the Nigerian onshore downstream oil sector.
In a press release, Executive Director ERA/FoEN, Dr. Godwin Uyi Ojo frowned at Shell’s plan to sell its land based and shallow offshore oil fields and infrastructures in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
Dr. Godwin Uyi Ojo, observed, “Shell owes the environment and the people of the Niger Delta region a huge ecological debt for its reckless operations in the region over the last seven decades… Shell is running away from accountability for its ruinous actions in the Niger Delta region; this amounts to eating your cake and having it”.
He said that Shell having almost drained the region dry of oil and gas resources and engaged in ecocide in the region now seeks to walk away with billions of dollars in its kitty.
He called on the Nigerian state to protect local communities’ interest within the divestment process of oil and gas multinational companies operating in the Niger Delta region and halt Shell’s attempt to run away from its mess without a proper clean up of the Niger Delta.
Oil companies divesting from the region, collecting huge payouts for oil fields and infrastructure sold, he upheld, disenfranchised local communities leaving them to deal with the devastation and destruction of the ecosystem, their lives and livelihoods.
Shell, he pointed out, recently sold OML 17 to HEIRS Holding in a deal worth well over half a billion dollars with nothing set aside for the remediation and restoration of the damaged ecosystem of communities around this area.
