New Telegraph

Fishermen to Shell: Pay Bonga oil spill fine

Artisanal Fishermen Association of Nigeria (ARFAN), on  on Monday applauded Friday’s Dutch court ruling that found Shell liable of polluting the farmlands of four farmers in the Niger Delta region.

They urged the oil firm, which lost the case at appeal, to consider complying with the judgement and compensate the farmers and remediate the polluted environment as ordered by the Durch Appeal Court.

 

The Court of Appeal in The Hague, ruled that the Nigerian arm of the British-Dutch company, SPDC should compensate the farmers and clean-up the pollution from its leaking oil pipelines and install anti-leak devices on them.

 

Reacting to the judgement in Yenagoa,  Rev. Samuel Ayadi Coordinator of ARFAN in the Niger Delta noted that the triumph of the farmers in a Dutch court was heartwarming.

 

He said that the litigation brings to mind the damage and impact of the  2011 Bonga oilfields spill which ironically led to the extinction of the bonga fish specie for which the oil facility was named after.

 

Ayadi lamented that the refusal of Shell to compensate fishermen for losses incurred after the spill polluted the Atlantic ocean was regrettable.

 

But Bamidele Odugbesan, Media Relations Manager of the SPDC, still maintained  that most leaks from its operations were caused by vandals.

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