WATCH THE VIDEO HERE Niger Deltans have once again called on Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) to take responsibility for environmental damage in the communities caused by oil spills as their lawsuit hearing brought against the British oil major began at the High Court in London, the United Kingdom. Thousands of members of the Ogale and Bille communities are suing Shell and its Nigerian subsidiary SPDC over oil spills in the Niger Delta. King Godwin Bebe Okpabi, the leader of the Ogale community in the Niger Delta, on Thursday called on the oil major to remediate the damage, which he said had “destroyed our way of life”. Years of oil spills have caused widespread environmental damage, which has destroyed the livelihood of millions in the local farming and fishing communities and also impacted their health. The king said Shell had made billions of dollars in Nigeria – which he called “blood money” – and had a moral responsibility to prevent and remediate oil spills. “As we speak, people are dying in Ogale, my community,” he said. “It is sad that Shell will now want to take us through this very expensive, very troublesome trial, claiming one technicality or the other,” he told Reuters. He was speaking outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London ahead of a four-week hearing to determine issues of Nigerian law and whether Shell can be held liable for oil spills caused by third-party interference, ahead of a further trial in 2026. On its part, Shell said the vast majority of spills were caused by illegal third-party interference, such as pipeline sabotage and theft, which is rife in the Niger Delta. A Shell spokesperson told the publication that the litigation “does little to address the real problem in the Niger Delta: oil spills due to theft, illegal refining and sabotage, which cause the most environmental damage”. Shell’s lawyers said in court filings that SPDC recognises it is obliged to compensate those harmed by oil spills even if SPDC is not at fault, but not where it has already done so or where spills were caused by “the malicious acts of third parties”. The case, parts of which began nearly a decade ago, has already been to the UK’s Supreme Court, which ruled in 2021 that the case should be heard in the English courts. The lawsuit is the latest example of multinationals being sued in London for the acts of overseas subsidiaries, following a landmark 2019 ruling in a separate case.
Oil Spills: Niger Delta Communities Urge Shell to Take Responsibility
