Sell -off  onshore assets: S4C urges FG to  ensure Shell redresses wrongdoings to host communities

Stanley Ihedigbo

Leading Pro-environment group in Nigeria , Spaces for Change (S4C), has urged the Federal Government to ensure that Shell company redresses all of its wrongdoings  by cleaning up and remediating the environment, fairly compensating affected communities and resolving the floodgate of litigation in numerous courts.

In a statement made available to The Mirror, signed by Executive Director,  S4C, Ms. Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri, tagged:’ Who will clean up Shell’s mess? A call for government action’, stated that they emphasized the importance of enforcing the fulfillment of all contractual obligations owed to these communities.

“Concurrently, we request a comprehensive needs assessment to accurately gauge the extent of environmental damage inflicted upon these areas as a condition for these divestments,” she explained.

Ibezim-Ohaeri noted that  on the 16th of January 2024, Shell company  announced plans to sell off a large chunk of its onshore assets in the Niger Delta region to a consortium of companies in a deal worth $2.4 billion.

“Shell’s business operations in the Niger Delta for more than five decades have caused extensive oil pollution, contamination of water sources, environmental degradation, monumental destruction of traditional livelihoods, and largescale human suffering across communities in the Niger Delta region.

‘We joins a ton of environmentally-devastated host communities to ask: Who will clean up Shell’s mess?
Consistent with its business practices in the past that is well documented, Shell company has steadily blamed third parties/sabotage for persistent oil leaks, blowout and fires, avoided compensation responsibilities to impacted households and communities, flared gas with impunity, and dodged clean-ups from oil spillage.

“Although the full details of the deal between Shell company and the consortium of companies have not been made public, it is very unlikely that robust arrangements have been made to redress these environmental injustices. It is also unlikely that a new business venture will agree to take over the humongous liabilities resulting from Shell’s business operations in the region,” she said.

The Executive Director of S4C added that selling off its onshore business while the enormous harm caused by the same business operations persists is a very bad practice that rises to the level of corporate irresponsibility.

“Perception is growing that the proposed sale is merely an avenue to escape liability from the litany of environmental injustices that have trailed its business operations in the Niger Delta region.

“We calls on the Nigerian government to immediately take steps to protect the rights of host communities across the Niger Delta whose rights have been battered over the years with impunity.

“The damage caused by Shell’s business operations is the subject of several lawsuits pending in courts all over the world. A litany of judicial proclamations by national, regional and foreign courts have ordered Shell company to pay restitution, all to no avail.

“Courts have held that Shell’s business operations violated communities’ rights to life, human dignity, a healthy environment, and a standard of living as constitutionally guaranteed by sections 11, 20, 33, and 34 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, and reinforced by Articles 4, 16, and 24 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

“The Nigerian Government must take urgent steps to prevent Shell company from evading accountability for its violations of fundamental human rights under the guise of divestment. People (and human lives) must always come before profit,” she stressed.