A couple of Nigerian communities filed a damage action holding Royal Dutch Shell responsible over multiple oil spills in the Niger Delta.
Ogale and Bille community had renewed wave of attacks on the energy industry that threatens to disrupt production in Africa's top crude exporter and whose increasing sophistication is raising concern among diplomats and security experts.
According to Leigh Day, an environmental law firm which represents the two communities stated that, "the 40,000-strong Ogale community in Rivers State, believe that successive spills since 1989 have meant they do not have clean drinking water, farmland or rivers."
Whereas, the Bille community claimed Shell should be liable for "failing to protect their pipelines from damage caused by third parties."
Reported by BBC, Daniel Leader, a partner at Leigh Day, said "It is scandalous that four years after the UNEP Report, Shell is yet to clean up its oil in either Ogale or Bille. Our client's patience has now run out and we intend to force Shell to act since it is clear they have no intention of doing so on their own."
Shell alleged that it already paid £55 million to the Bodo community in an out-of-court settlement in January 2015 for oil spills that occurred in 2008 and 2009.
Moreso, it claimed that the volume of oil spilled in the region was 4,000 barrels, but evidence proved that the actual volume was closer to 500,000 barrels. Court documents from this case, including emails from employees, demonstrate Shell's negligence of oil spills in the region.
Amnesty International said in November 2015 report that an investigation showed Shell had failed to clear four oil-spill sites in the Niger delta, months after President Muhammadu Buhari said he's accelerating a clean-up of the area.
Amnesty International's UK Economic Affairs Program Director Peter Frankental said, "Shell has an appalling record of obfuscation and misinformation with regard to its dealings in the Niger Delta. Our briefing reveals just how irresponsible Shell has been in its operations in the region."
He also said that it is disgraceful that Shell has to be dragged to the courts to address the issues. He feared that money and the health, livelihoods and emotional anguish of the affected communities could have been spared had Shell simply accepted responsibility and cleaned up the oil spills quickly and thoroughly.
Environmental Management Association of Nigeria (EMAN) said that oil spillage and other related issues would cease if the Federal Government were to ensure that oil exploration facilities used by oil companies were properly audited.
Oil spillage has been going on for a long time now and the issue of environmental audit is lacking because the relevant government institution is not putting pressure on those companies causing the spillage.
It will be the second suit in five years, as the mainly-fishing and farming communities of Bille and Ogale want compensation for damage to their region and for the oil giant to clean up their land.
Leigh Day handled a similar case in 2015 that Shell agreed to pay 55 million pounds ($77 million) to recompense more than 15,000 residents of the Nigerian Bodo community for oil spills in 2008.
