Millions of barrels of oil have been spilled in Nigeria’s Delta region. Tired of the abuse, Nigerians just blew up a pipeline and a platform in an attempt to rectify what politicians and courts have been slow to do.
As a result of the deteriorating security situation, the Nigeria oil union announced that Shell and Chevron workers have been evacuated.
On a strip of cork that I have attached to the wall in my home office hangs a yellowing postcard that reads, “What makes Shell Oil think it can get away with murder? . . . Because it already has.” And, then, below the fold, the murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa and what became known as the Ogoni Nine is described in excruciating detail. Was Shell Oil guilty of murder?
In 2009, while not admitting guilt, Shell Oil settled the case brought by the family members of the Ogoni Nine just before going to trial under the Alien Tort Claims Act, which allows foreigners to sue others in U.S. Courts for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture, and other violations of international law.
Saro-Wiwa was the president of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), an organization that fought against the spoliation of indigenous land by the Nigerian Federal Government and foreign oil companies. Activists were reportedly killed because of their demands for a clean environment, as well as allowing for farming and revenue sharing from the Niger Delta area.
Shell Oil isn’t the only company that needs to come clean about its dirty dealings in Nigeria. Chevron has been engaged in the same dirty practices, including allegedly supplying the Nigerian government with armaments to kill peaceful protestors. Unfortunately, the Nigerian victims lost their legal case against Chevron, filed in the U.S. Thereafter, the US Supreme Court whittled away at the principle of universal jurisdiction that the ATCA represented. The Supreme Court ruled that the Alien Tort Claims Act could not be used to sue corporations in the event of human rights violations. Thus, an acknowledgement that justice against oil companies is “slippery” at best.
Despite a 2011 United Nations Environment Program investigation finding serious environmental and public health concerns, little has been done to rectify the situation. Friends of the Earth estimates that some 400,000 tons of oil have been spilled in the Niger Delta by these oil companies, largely with impunity. Human Rights Watch has also documented the devastation and the abuse. In December 2015, a Netherlands court ruled that four Nigerian farmers and Friends of the Earth can sue Shell for its repeated oil spills.
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