AKANIMO SAMPSON

SHELL IN TROUBLE OVER OIL SPILL

THE Nigerian Chair of the Friends of the Earth International (FoEI),a global federation of environmental rights advocacy groups, Mr. Nnimmo Bassey, told AkanimoReports on Thursday that the AngloDutch super oil and gas major, Shell,was in trouble over its persistent oil spills in the Niger Delta, Nigeria's main oil and gas region.

According to Bassey, the court in The Hague has adjourned the
first of a total of three lawsuits against Royal Dutch Shell for oil
pollution in Nigeria.

The adjournment was granted at the request of lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case: four Nigerian farmers and Friends of the Earth Netherlands. The court has determined that the next written testimony, the ‘rejoinder’, must be submitted on 24 March 2010.

The suit was originally filed in November 2008.

The rejoinder is the plaintiffs’ written reaction to Shell’s arguments
in its statement of defence, in a case involving large-scale oil
pollution that has damaged agriculture and fishing in the Nigerian
village of Oruma. The facts of the case were described by the Nigerian
farmers and Friends of the Earth in the subpoena they submitted to the
court in The Hague in November 2008.

Geert Ritsema of Friends of the Earth Netherlands comments, “It is not
uncommon to postpone a case, certainly with a lawsuit as complex as this
one. The adjournment will allow our lawyer to put all the evidence in
order. The obstacles that the lawyers for the Nigerian farmers and
Friends of the Earth have encountered in this case are typical of the
roadblocks that multinationals throw up to evade responsibility.”

Friends of the Earth and the Nigerian plaintiffs have also held Shell
liable in two other cases involving similar incidents in the villages of
Goi and Ikot Ada Udo, which like Oruma are located in the Niger Delta.
These cases will be heard several months after the Oruma case. ENDS