We The People, a human and ecological rights organization, is exploring legal avenues to hold international oil companies (IOCs) accountable for the extensive environmental damage caused by their operations in the Niger Delta over the past seven decades.
The urgency of this action has been underscored by the recent trend of IOCs shifting focus from onshore operations to deep offshore activities, a process referred to as divestment.
On Monday, We The People hosted a “Legal Roundtable on Oil Company Divestment” aimed at gathering experts in environmental matters, legal professionals, media representatives, and civil society organizations. The goal was to devise legal strategies to hold IOCs accountable for the significant environmental harm inflicted on the Niger Delta region before they transition to what many perceive as the unethical abandonment of their responsibilities by multinational oil corporations.
Ken Henshaw, Executive Director of WeThePeople, emphasized the critical importance of the roundtable. He highlighted the challenge of holding these companies accountable for their role in polluting the region once they withdraw from the country’s shores. Therefore, it is imperative to address this issue and ensure that IOCs assume liability for the consequences of their activities.
Henshaw remarked, “Since 2020 to 2021, many international oil companies that have operated in the Niger Delta for nearly 70 years have begun divesting their assets. Agip is transferring ownership to Oando, Shell is transferring ownership to Renaissance Energy, ExxonMobil is transferring ownership to Seplat. These assets are being sold to indigenous companies.”
“We think that this is a real problem in the sense that we are not sure of the chances or opportunities of holding these companies accountable when they leave.
“We all know that the extraction of crude oil and gas has created different levels of problems. Routinely gas has been flared for almost 70 years, routinely oil spilled for almost 60 years and this has caused serious ecological damage and also damage to the health of the people. It has made their fishing and occupation not viable.
“So after 70 years, we are simply saying that there is a need for us to assess the extent of negative impacts created by oil extraction and place liability and responsibility where liability and responsibility should be placed.
“We are simply asking through this meeting, what are the legal options available to hold these companies accountable”.
Delivering the keynote address, Professor Ibiba Lucky Worika, a Specialist in Petroleum and International Law and Policy at the University of Port Harcourt, urged the Federal Government to exercise restraint in ratifying the oil companies assets divestment.
He advised the government to ensure that companies address the historical pollution and other environmental concerns in the oil rich region before being allowed to leave because the people will be at the receiving end.
“For us here in the Niger Delta, the divestment of IOCs is something that basically we are likely going to be at the receiving end, our environment has been essentially despoiled over the years due to decades of oil and gas exploration and development and historical pollutions have never been addressed by the oil majors or the government and unfortunately our communities are left alone to deal with this.
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“The question is, should these oil and gas majors just be allowed to walk away, divest their assets and just walk away without addressing the historical pollution and other environmental concerns.
“I don’t think that would be fair, I think that the Federal government should exercise restraint on giving its approval so we can have a round table discussion where these concerns can truly be expressed and let’s see what it is that can be done to address these concerns”, stated.
Prof. Worika, threatened that should the government fail to do the needful soonest, civil society organisations in the Niger Delta would be left with no other option but to institute legal action against the federal government and the international oil companies.
He lamented; “I have not heard of any instances where a local government area or a state government took it upon itself to sue an oil major for and on behalf of the communities. I have not seen that, but we still have them sharing the revenues from oil and gas exploration from all these communities”.
He warned; “If this is not done then I fear that we may have to institute legal actions ahead of the divestment, restraining both the federal government and the oil companies concerned from divesting until these matters are looked into much more approximately and of course remediation as well as compensation packages are arranged for the communities.
For Iniruo Wills, a former Commissioner for Environment in Bayelsa state, the blame for unending environmental pollution in the region should be on Governors, Ministers and Senators from the region who he accused of abetting the pollution of the environment.
Wills, who is also a lawyer, who is also an environmental advocate, alleged that that the political leaders have allowed the menace to continue because of the pecuniary benefits.
He said, “Some of us are surprised that no state government in the Niger Delta is doing anything serious about abating the pollution in the region, so this is an opportunity to call on the individuals, I don’t like fictions or ghosts, but individuals like you and I who are holding the offices, the authority needed to do something.
“Some of them are in Abuja, Abuja is too far, we are in the Niger Delta who are people in the Niger Delta that we the people have put as our gatekeepers to defend us, to defend our territories, such as the Governor’s, so if the kind of pollution and other environmental hazards that we have been singing songs about for 50 to 70 years are continuing, not just because of the people in Abuja or the oil companies.
“It is because somebody or People who are governors, senators, or ministers of petroleum from the Niger Delta have refused to do anything about it.
“As of this moment that we are speaking, if pollution is continuing in Rivers State, it is because Sim Fubara does not consider it a priority, if it is continuing in Bayelsa state, it would be because Governor Duoyi Diri does not take it as a priority. The day that one governor in the Niger Delta considers that this thing is a danger to my people and I am going to deploy the full weight of my executive authority and resources to deal with it, this madness will come to an end.”
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