Date Published: 02/01/11

Bonny Youth Poised For War Over Shell’s Oil Spill Claims
…Plans Hague Visit

Youths of Bonny in Bonny Local government Area of Rivers state, housing the biggest crude oil terminal and the multi billion naira Liquefied Natural Gas plant are poised for war with Multinational oil giant Shell over persitent refusal to take full responsibility of oil spillages caused by failures at SPDC facilities, and its exploitation of lax environmental regulations that see them violate the rights of communities and individuals in and around Bonny Island.

The youths lashed out at Shell over its claims that massive spillages that have ravaged the island in recent times are blamed on sabotage, when it is obvious that facility failures and laxity on the place of Shell staff was responsible.

In a statement signed by, Gift Furo, leader of Bonny Youth Federation (BYF), it reads; “the Central executive council of the Bonny youths federation, the apex and central governing council of all the youths in Bonny kingdom has observed with dismay the continuous devastation posed by outrageous and incessant crude oil spills in Bonny rivers as a result of failures at SPDC facilities. These spills are as a result of deliberate neglect of old and dilapidated pipe lines and well heads which regrettably Shell management have refused to take responsibility or action to stall or curtail the frequent spills, thereby putting the people of Bonny and her environment in untold risk, hardship and environmental degradation”.

The statement went further to observe that Shell has been operating in Bonny for more than forty years and has her biggest export terminal in Bonny for the exporting of the world acclaimed Bonny Light crude, amassing huge profits in Billions of dollars but yet has never thought it wise to do anything concrete to save or protect the Bonny environment. It further pointed out that statistics show that Bonny currently experiences the most frequent crude oil spill in the Niger Delta and called for concerted efforts to reduce the devastating trend.

The Bonny Youth leader went ahead to urge Shell to expedite action following a recent spill at Oloma which he said has affected fishermen who depend on the sea as the only source of livelihood. “On these recent spills in Oloma and other affected communities we call on shell and the government to ensure that an international standard cleaning and acceptable compensation is carried out to calm fraying nerves otherwise the Bonny youths federation on behalf of all affected youths will have no option than to hold Shell accountable for the extreme damages caused to our environment and shall consequently mobilise her youths for a serious demonstration against shell and seek redress in both the Nigerian court and world court at the Hague”.

The Bonny youth federation warning is interestingly coming barely days after Friends of the Earth International and Amnesty International took their case before The Dutch parliament at The Hague on the 26th of January 2011 over Shell’s non-transparent, inconsistent and misleading figures peddled on the causes of oil leaks in the Niger delta region and its continuous refusal to take full responsibility of spills in the region.

According to one of the fishermen in Oloma he lamented that since the occurrence of the said spillage fishermen in Bonny River have been suffering untold hardship, making ends meet have been a problem and this is endangering the lives of their family members and dependants. Others blamed government’s reluctance to implement laws that will ensure Shell take responsibility for its failed facilities and urge government to state clearly the definition of sabotage and facility failure to avert crisis.