BY ANNKIO OPURUM- BRIGGS

Hon. Pawariso S. Horsfall, Rivers State Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources.

Hon. Emmanuel Deeya, Rivers State Commissioner for Culture and Tourism.

Mr. Gregory Pie- Noah, Deputy Minority Whip, Rivers State House of Assembly.

Mr. Austin Nwakoh, Businessman.

Annkio Opurum – Briggs, President AGAPE IS A BIRTHRIGHT and member of Niger Delta Women for Justice (NDWJ).

1. That SHELL’s response was too late, having been made over 5 days after the spill occurred and 4 days after the spill was reported to it.
2. That SHELL was already attributing the spill to sabotage, despite the fact that SHELL had not had any kind of access to the site to determine the cause of the spill.
3. That the local communities are experiencing skin, throat and eye irritation as well as respiratory difficulties, yet SHELL has made no effort to address the medical situation.
4. That the local drinking water has been contaminated by the spill and the crops in the ground, yet no relief materials in form of water or food or any kind whatsoever has been sent to them.

SHELL has abandoned its operations in the vicinity of this spill since 1993, as such, every wellhead in the area needs checking, securing and/or replacing.

In December 1999, a fire occurred at Yorla from SHELL’s well 16, after which, the Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Hon. Pawariso S. Horsfall, advised SHELL to act quickly to secure its oil wells in the community to avoid an occurrence such as this. This advice was obviously ignored, otherwise this situation would not have occurred.

Between January 2000 – January, 2001, SHELL was repeatedly called upon to come and secure its wellheads. These calls were repeatedly rejected by SHELL, citing youth restiveness as excuse, despite reassurances given it by various respected persons and institutions within the area. In point of fact, Mr. Austin Nwakoh had spoken on various occasions with the communities to allow SHELL access to the wellheads to secure them. As a result of these discussions, a meeting was held in the last week of December, 2000, by the Khana Local Government Chairman, paramount rulers, chiefs, elders, opinion leaders, youths and Government functionaries in Ke-Khana District, as a result of which a communiqué was issued calling on SHELL to come into the area to secure its oil wells in Yorla as a matter of urgency, and guaranteeing it safe passage for the period required to carry out the exercise. This communiqué was sent to SHELL and announcements made on radio and T.V. for 3 days in Rivers State. Throughout January 2001 – March 2001, SHELL made no move to secure its wells. When asked its reasons, SHELL stated that the security arrangements proposed by the communiqué are not satisfactory and that it would require concrete reassurances and participation by the State Government in the security arrangement before it would act.

The community stated that if SHELL had acted as requested earlier this year, this fresh disaster to the people and environment would have been avoided.

The communities where SHELL operates are basically peaceful and wish for nothing more than to derive some benefit from their natural resources. Even at this point, they are willing to accept apologies of wrongful operational practices and move forward to a better future, but SHELL’s policies, especially during crisis periods such as this, have not helped to create harmonious relationship between it and its host communities.

When spills or blowouts occur, these are not investigated by international standards, nor are compensations assessed by international standards. Instead, bags of money are given to individuals who work for themselves, and never the communities. SHELL is well aware that these are greedy and selfish people, and that these monies do not get to the persons who are entitled to them, yet SHELL chooses to use them as middle men to the communities, possibly because certain persons within the SHELL hierarchy receive kickbacks from these individuals, so, prefer to pay the monies to them out of selfish interest, or, that SHELL simply does not care what happens to the communities from whom it makes it huge profits.

SHELL always manages to bring communities to loggerheads by unequal allocation of what it calls relief materials and monies during crisis such as oil spills, blowouts, or fires.

This so called emergency response is nothing short of bribes and incentives that SHELL uses to induce access, which often leads to fights amongst the communities.

The major reason for communities refusing SHELL access to spill or blow-out sites especially in this latest case, is not because it is SABOTAGE, as each spill or blow-out has to be investigated and the truth established beyond doubt, rather it is SHELL’s low level of sensitivity towards the communities before the spill or blow-out and SHELL’s actions or inaction immediately after the spill or blow-out.

The youths conclude that they gain nothing from oil operations, and believe they stand to lose nothing by denying SHELL access to spill sites. Even the threats to their lives, their communities, and their environment (which lack of education has made them unaware of) is immaterial, they are so frustrated and angry that they do not care about the consequences of their reactions.

The people are reacting to the obvious, SHELL takes billions of dollars out of their land, others collect millions of Naira on their behalf, and they continue to pay the price. SHELL is faced with youths who are born to parents and grandparents, whose stories are filled with how SHELL came into their communities, took oil out, and destroyed their environment, their livelihood. SHELL operations have lead directly or indirectly to their deaths, the deaths of their leaders, therefore, they have no reason for hope and have concluded that there is no other option than a reaction, any reaction, as long as long as it leads to a halt in what they hold responsible for their suffering and the destruction of their environment.

On the larger scene, SHELL’s community relations policy is not working for the people it is meant for. It gives fishponds and pollutes them with oil; health centres with no equipment or relevant staff; classroom blocks with no textbooks or teachers; bags of rice and beans which now and again lead to jealousies and encourage disputes between communities that intermarry and live less than 3 –5 kilometres apart. It claims that it builds tarred roads, but more often than not, these roads only lead from one SHELL facility to another SHELL facility in communities and are intended primarily to facilitate SHELL’s business. If such road happens to cut through 1, 2 or more communities, then "SHELL has successfully constructed umpteen kilometres of tarred roads and brought development to the lives of the people of A, B and C community".

Oil and gas exploration and exploitation is still being carried out in native communities, with total disregard to the people of the communities, and to their environment. SHELL’s profits increase yearly, at a terrible cost to the communities that play host to its operations. Has anyone ever considered that SHELL’s profits are so high because it invests so little in new drilling technology and does not conform to standards that are universally applicable in other more developed countries?

From the complaints of the communities it is clear that SHELL is still not as sensitive, and as responsive as they ought to be to the host communities and the environment. SHELL still comes across to the neglected and oppressed people of the communities as insensitive, greedy, selfish, and uncaring. It is therefore not surprising that there was resistance to SHELL after the well 14 blow-out, and there will continue to be resistance until the problems of the host communities are addressed. The people are angry, and this is an opportunity to talk, as otherwise no one listens only; in crisis like this do they have a chance to be heard.

As much as SHELL needs a safe, peaceful and secure environment to operate from, so do the host communities want development, opportunities, to benefit from oil operations, education, respect and most of all, a land free from negative effects of oil exploration.

SHELL’s profits increase yearly, their investment into exploring and exploiting grows yearly, yet the host communities are the ultimate victims. The host communities are dying from SHELL’s profit making, from pollution, environmental degradation and oppression, which is now their unchanging lot. SHELL must truly seek to get to the bottom of its problems with host communities and begin to solve them. The people, any people for that matter, will react to poverty, unemployment, lack of basic facilities, such as light, clean drinking water, healthcare. There is a build up of frustrations resulting from total neglect, from others enjoying the God-given resources of the Niger Delta, and while the people of the Niger Delta die from the enjoyment of others.

These notes were taken and presented at ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS ACTION (ERA) Round Table, by the President of AGAPE IS A BIRTHRIGHT, a Niger Delta Community based NGO working to defend the rights of women, children, youths, and the environment.

Ms Opurum –Briggs is also a member of the Niger Delta Women for Justice (NDWJ).

Ms Opurum – Briggs could be contacted at

Email: annkioopurum@yahoo.co.uk

Agapeisabirthright@onebox.com

Ogoni is a special case, as Shell is yet to resolve its problems with the Ogoni people.

Shell has oil wells it has abandoned since the year 1993 on the flimsy excuses that the youths are restive, or that there are unresolved issues with the Ogoni people.

Restiveness or not Shell must through round table negotiations develop ways to go into Yorla oil field and secure its oil wells.

Whatever methods or formula Shell is using to negotiate with its host communities presently, needs to be reviewed, reassessed and definitely new methods of negotiating with host communities in all its operation is highly recommended.

Shell owes it to its conscience and to its host communities to do the right thing, for if they do not, and bury their head in crude oil, they can continue to expect hostilities, and frustrations anytime the communities get the opportunity.

Significant changes and progress must be made in areas of community and environmental management.

SABOTAGE as restiveness is fast becoming a word that is describing the youths of the Niger Delta, and the youths are rejecting that label. SABOTAGE is an offence, therefore before anyone is tagged a saboteur the accuser must have solid evidence and not just mere speculations.

For the sake of justice and fairness Shell should accept that in the past it had made mistakes, apologise for the past mistakes and start doing the right thing by operating exactly as they operate in other parts of the world, this means carrying out all their operations by international standard.

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