Ogoni rights abuses: Will Nigeria bring charges against Shell?
An uprising by a group, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), created in 1990 and led by Ken Saro-Wiwa, shut down oil production in 1993 in Ogoniland. In response, late military ruler, Sani Abacha unleashed the Nigerian army, who detained dozens of demonstrators, tried and killed Saro Wiwa along with nine others in a mockery of a trial.
Amnesty International, a London-based human rights group has said that Shell, Europe’s biggest oil firm who operates a joint venture agreement with the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is complicit in these human rights abuses by funding military operations and encouraging suppression of protests through the bullet.
The global rights group, in a report released last week, is calling on authorities in Nigeria, the Netherlands and UK to investigate Shell’s conduct, especially in the Ogoni area of the southern delta. It said violations linked to Shell amounted to criminal infractions for which it should be prosecuted.
“The evidence we have reviewed shows that Shell repeatedly encouraged the Nigerian military to deal with community protests, even when it knew the horrors this would lead to; unlawful killings, rape, torture, the burning of villages,” Audrey Gaughran, director of Global Issues at Amnesty International told Bloomberg. Shell “even provided the military with material support, including transport, and in at least one instance paid a military commander notorious for human rights violations,” said Gaughran.
Shell “did not collude with the authorities to suppress community unrest and in no way encouraged or advocated any act of violence in Nigeria,” the company’s Nigerian unit told Bloomberg. “We believe that the evidence will show clearly that Shell was not responsible for these tragic events.”
However, Nigeria rarely hold oil companies to account for violations of its laws because more often than not, government agencies are accused of equally violating these laws.
An example will suffice. Gas flaring is outlawed in Nigeria and even fines have been agreed for oil companies that continues the practice. Since Nigeria has no serious intention of enforcing the law, it applies paltry fines for the practice.
“Gas flaring is a preferred option for the oil companies as it is cheaper to pay fines than invest in the technology required for gather the gas and government has not enforced the law prohibiting the practice,” Toyese Adenipekun, principal partner at McCoy Barristers & Solicitors, told BusinessDay.
NNPC, through its subsidiary the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company is also in contravention of the law. Analysts BusinessDay spoke to are not optimistic of a criminal prosecution of the company in the country citing previous precedents.
Shell operates in Nigeria through subsidiaries, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and the Shell Nigerian Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO) and the Shell Nigeria Gas. The oldest energy company in Africa’s biggest oil producer, it owns the biggest oil wells in Nigeria and a significant partner in the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) operations.
Other joint ventures are run by ExxonMobil Corp., Chevron Corp., Total SA and Eni SpA.
Large swaths of the Ogoni population mounted a searing campaign against Shell’s subsidiaries in Nigeria in the 1990s due to widespread pollution and environmental degradation of the region. According to Amnesty International, with Shell’s backing, the government sent soldiers to silence the protesters- sometimes permanently.
The return of democracy did not end the abuse. In November 1999, soldiers killed hundreds of people in an assault on the community of Odi, where twelve policemen had been killed by an armed gang. Soldiers, naval personnel, and paramilitary Mobile Police deployed across the delta carry out summary executions, assaults and other abuses on an ongoing basis. No one was held accountable for these abuses.
As part of peaceful overtures, the Nigerian government is embarking on the cleanup of Ogoni land after years of oil spills. Shell is also supporting the project but the prospect of actually pressing charges against Shell seems a remote possibility.
ISAAC ANYAOGU