Nigerian king takes Shell to court in London
Print Edition
KING Emere Godwin Bebe Okpabi holds up a plastic bottle containing contaminated water from his community in Nigeria, proof of oil pollution that he blames on Royal Dutch Shell — and on which he hopes a London court will deliver justice.
“My people are drinking this water,” said the tribal king of the Ogale community in the oil-rich Niger Delta.
Okpabi flew to London for a High Court hearing on Tuesday in which lawyers for more than 40,000 Nigerians are demanding action from Shell to clean up oil spills that have devastated their communities for decades.
“There are strange diseases in my community — skin diseases, people are dying sudden deaths, some people are impotent, low sperm count,” he said. “I can afford to buy water. But can I afford to buy for everybody? No.”
The Anglo-Dutch oil giant argues that the case should be heard in Nigeria, pointing out that it involves its Nigerian subsidiary SPDC, which runs a joint venture with the government, and Nigerian plaintiffs.
But Okpabi, wearing a traditional robe with a red necklace and black top hat, said the English justice system was his only hope to end the blight on his people’s lives.
“Shell is Nigeria and Nigeria is Shell. You can never, never defeat Shell in a Nigerian court. The truth is that the Nigerian legal system is corrupt,” he said.
He wants the High Court to compel Shell to implement a 2011 landmark report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), which warned of dangerously high levels of hydrocarbons in the water, bitumen-coated mangroves and poor air quality.
It should order the company to “go and clean-up Ogale, go and provide water for them; go and do medical history for them, and where medical attention is needed provide for them,” he said.
The king said no money would be enough to address the damage, which UNEP warned could take 25 to 30 years to resolve, but wants compensation, adding: “We are dying.”
Shell lawyer Peter Goldsmith told the High Court on Tuesday that the cases concerned “fundamentally Nigerian issues,” and shouldn’t be heard in London.
SPDC also disputes the claims made by lawyers Leigh Day, who represent Ogale and the smaller Bille community.
“Both Bille and Ogale are areas heavily impacted by crude oil theft, pipeline sabotage and illegal refining which remain the main sources of pollution across the Niger Delta,” a company spokeswoman said.
She noted SPDC has not produced any oil or gas in Ogoniland, the region surrounding Ogale, since 1993. But Okpabi and his lawyers say the company’s ageing, leaky pipelines still run through the region and it must take responsibility.
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