KALLOP HUMANITARIAN AND ENVIRONMENTAL CENTRE
URGENT PRESS RELEASE – 21st February 2024
NIGER DELTA CSOs SAY NO TO DIVESTMENT WITHOUT RESTORATION
Kallop Humanitarian and Environmental Centre and Kebetkache Women Development & Resource Centre in partnership with community-based organizations around the Niger Delta region have expressed dissatisfaction over the announcement by Shell to divest their entire Nigeria joint venture portfolio from the Niger Delta on-shore and swallow waters without consultations with the oil bearing communities and address the issues of environmental pollution from their operations in the region.
There are ongoing plans by Shell to sell 100 percent of their shares in Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to a consortium of investors.
These do not go down well with us and the communities that have suffered from decades of environmental pollution. OML 34, OML 17 and OML 29 had already been divested without proper guidelines.
Furthermore, other IOCs like Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC), Exxon Mobil Nigeria Limited, and Total Energy Nigeria Limited, are poised to divest all their onshore assets without engaging host communities or remediating the degraded environment and the well-being of the people.
These act show how the IOCs are attempting to avoid responsibility.We are passionate about the Niger Delta environment. We are also deeply concerned about the planned divestment and how it affects the local communities, the government has not established frameworks for oil company divestment that highlighted community concerns to ensure the resolution of pollution issues before the exit of all the IOCs from the region.
Unfortunately, IOCs are hurriedly selling off assets and leave without addressing key environmental concerns of the communities.
There are also indications that even Nigerian authorities have not put together a divestment policy that will address ecological devastation, environmental justice and other oil producing area concerns.
The Niger Delta communities bear the burden of oil exploitation, facing deprivations due to environmental degradation and loss of means of livelihood.
The ecological degradation caused by oil extraction impacted negatively on the community economic activities, leading to more hardship and increased poverty in the region.
We are not sure of the reputations of the national companies acquiring the assets of Shell, AGIP, and Exxon Mobil.
We therefore appeal to the government of Nigeria and make the following demands:
1. Stop the divestment plans until polluted farmlands and creeks are cleaned up and means of livelihood of the people are restored by these IOCs.
2. The divestment plan should include repairing the damage occasioned by oil pollution, an audit of the health of the people and a plan to respond to the threats posed by climate change.
3. The divestment plan should include provision for justice of the countless victims of oil company inspired and state sanctioned abuses, and reparations to the people of the Niger Delta for decades of expropriation for justice to prevail.
We are saying no to IRRESPONSIBLE DIVESTMENT!
NO DIVESTMENT WITHOUT RESTORATION!
Signed
Anthony Aalo Kallop Humanitarian and Environmental Centre
Emem Okon
Kebetkache Women Development & Resource Centre
