Amnesty International On the Neck of SHELL Nigeria Over Ogoni Oil Spill.

One of The Spill Sites in OgoniLand

Amnesty International has called on the Nigerian government to make sure the global oil giant Shell is held accountable for its actions in the Niger Delta. The human rights group accuses Shell of causing an ecological catastrophe in the oil rich region over the last few decades. 

In a report released on Tuesday,“The Niger Delta is one of the most oil-polluted places in the world. That is because companies like Shell are failing to prevent or clean up spills years, sometimes decades, after they happen. Shell cannot rely on the Nigerian government to clean up its dirty work for it,

” Amnesty International Business & Human Rights Campaigner Joe Westby said. “The tragedy is that the oil spills continue to destroy the livelihoods of thousands of local people to this day.

 Shell will tell you that the vast majority are a result of theft, even though Amnesty International has repeatedly published evidence showing Shell misstates the cause of oil spills.” The campaign group claims Shell has caused at least 130 oil spills since the start of 2015 alone, and under Nigerian law, companies responsible for oil spills are required to clean them up.

Some Other Sites

Amnesty International calls on President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to ensure that the Ogoniland cleanup operation, which began earlier today, is effective.“Nigerian law still says that the company who operates the pipeline has to clean up.

 That is something Shell has failed to do for decades,” Westby said. “The start of the clean-up is a much-needed, long-awaited step for people who have lived with polluted waters and farmlands for decades. “They have a right to be skeptical, they have seen clean-ups promised and people paid to do the work in the past, only for little improvements to be delivered. This time the rhetoric must translate into action on the ground.”