Oil Pollution: Monarch Hails UK Supreme Court’s Ruling Against Shell

The paramount ruler of Ogale community in Eleme Local Government Area, King Godwin Babe Okpabi, has hailed the United Kingdom (UK) Supreme Court ruling which says that oil-polluted Nigerian communities can sue Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in English courts.
Describing the ruling as a welcome development, the monarch said the people of the community had suffered untold hardship due to the polluted water and soil caused by activities of Shell.
According to him, “how disappointed can they be with all the things they’ve been doing to us, to our water that they’ve completely destroyed, our land has been completely destroyed, our livelihood that has been taken over, for how many years now, do we have good drinking water? So Shell cannot be disappointed”
King Godwin Babe Okpabi advised the multinational company to do the right thing by providing people in communities devastated by oil spills with potable water to drink.
“Shell should begin to think how they would remediate the communities and try to see how we can get good water”, he advised
In his reaction an environmentalist and human rights defender, Fynface Dunamene,  also described the ruling as a welcome development.
He said the judgment would enable other oil impacted communities seek justice in the international court.
“With this judgment, I believe that other communities in the Niger Delta who could not get justice in Nigerian judicial system can now approach courts in the UK and other parts of the world,” he said
Meanwhile, oil polluted communities in the Niger Delta region went agog at the weekend following the news that they can go ahead to sue Shell in England, United Kingdom (UK).
The UK Supreme Court had ruled that the suits brought by the Bille community in Kalabari land and the Ogale people of Ogoni land against Shell were arguable and could proceed in the English courts.
The Niger Delta communities have consistently alleged that decades of oil pollution caused by Shell had severely devastated their lives, health and local environments.
Shell has, however, described the ruling as disappointing.

By: Tonye Nria-Dappa