By Obiabin Onukwugha
On Thursday, February 13 2025, the people of Ogale Community in Eleme local government area of Rivers State, barricaded the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) platform at Eleme, in protest of the massive environmental pollution and of livelihoods that have lasted since 1956.
The protest was to press home their demands and draw international attention to their plights, as a United Kingdom High Court commenced hearing of a $10billion suit instituted by Ogale and Bille communities of Rivers State against the oil giants in the UK.
The community, during the protest called on the international court to give them justice and hold Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, accountable for the devastation of their environment and loss of livelihoods.
The community is asking the international court to compel Shell to pay them compensation and remediate their environment.
The protesters all clad in black, carried placards and banners with inscriptions “Shell has poisoned our ground water”, “declare state of emergency on the environment of Ogale”, “Shell is killing us with their operations”, “justice for Ogale ending the scourge of oil spills”, amongst others. During the protest, women were seeing crying as they sat on bare floor.
The hearing came after a decade-long fight for justice. The hearing slated from 13 February to 10 March 2025, is coming after the UK Court on 6 December 2024, gave green light for the case finally to go ahead.
Ten years ago, residents from the Bille and Ogale communities in Rivers State, South/South Nigeria, claimed their livelihoods had been destroyed and homes damaged by hundreds of oil spills caused by Shell. The pollution, according to the claimants, caused widespread devastation to the local environment, killing fish and plant life, leaving thousands of people without access to clean drinking water.
It was gathered that Shell repeatedly delayed the case arguing it had no legal responsibility for any of the pollution, but the court last December agreed to go on with the trial.
The two communities are being represented by Leigh Day, a UK law firm, which previously took Shell to court on Bodo community oil spills, a community in Ogoni in 2011, which Shell later settled out of court.
The hearing is commencing with a Shell Preliminary Issues Trial of Nigerian Law, which aims to resolve a number of Nigerian private and constitutional law questions, with a view to confirming the legal framework to be applied to the subsequent trial between the Shell and the Ogale and Bille communities.
Addressing journalists during the protest an environmental rights activist, Celestine AkpoBari, said the community has continued to suffer from years of Shell’s operations. He said: “Ogale people are gathered here because today, a hearing in a case instituted by 13,000 farmers in a London is starting today and it will run until March 10, 2023. The Ogale people are here in solidarity with their king that is already in London. Human rights groups in UK is also doing same solidarity march in London. They are here to say enough is enough, that they have suffered so much, that justice should be served.
“As you are aware, on January 2, 2025, there was a major spill from this manifold belonging to Shell. Incidentally, it is the first time they were accepting that the fault was their own because they were flushing the oil from the sever pit and that overflow took over the whole community. Till today, people have not recovered from effects. Ogale people are saying enough is enough. They are demanding that Shell should pay adequate compensation for loss of livelihoods, for damages caused by the spillages. Benzene, a cancer causing substance id in their water. The people are suffering from various health challenges because of the polluted environment.”
Comrade Noble Worlu, Youth President of Ogale Community, who also spoke said: “We have suffered enough in the hands of Shell that’s why you can see the mammoth crowd here today. Nobody went to farm, nobody went to market, all shops are closed, everybody in the community is here today as a sign of solidarity to speak to the whole world that Ogale people have suffered a lot, we are dying of strange illnesses, we are suffering spillage on monthly basis. The last spill was just last week in this same facility that we are standing. We are suffering from different kinds of illnesses we don’t know. When will the spillage stop, when will Ogale people get justice, when will Ogale people get clean water to drink, because Shell has contaminated our ground water.
“Our demand is, compensation should be paid to Ogale people. There should be adequate health audit for Ogale people to ascertain the level of damage done to our system and how medical treatment can be enforced. They should give us clean water.”
Barr Johnson Ngochindu, Secretary and Legal Adviser of Ogale Community Council of Chiefs and Elders, who spoke on behalf of the community on his part said: “We are here to express our dissatisfaction, anger and displeasure over the activities of Shell. We have been so devastated, we have been so short-changed, we have been so maligned by Shell. We are peaceful community, we are a people who are so blessed with natural resources, but it has turned to a curse in our land. And because we see that we cannot achieve justice in Nigeria, no court in Nigeria can give us justice, that is why we headed for the UK.
“We are asking that the court in London should give us justice. We are short of trust where Nigerian government because they are collaborators. Shell and Nigerian government are collaborating to short-change the oil bearing communinites, that is why we are seeking help from the international court. The men, women, youths are dying in their numbers from the environmental pollution.”
Furthermore, Monday Amadi, CDC Chairman Ogale, called on the international court to compel Shell to restore the Ogale land, saying, “We are begging the people of London to give us favourable judgment because we have suffered enough in the hands of Shell and Shell don’t regard us as humans. We are farmers, if you look at our palm fruits, if you look at our economic trees, the aquatic nature of our rivers you cannot see anything. All the fishes in our rivers are all dead. Today we don’t have bush animals in our bushes again because of the pollution in the land. We are calling on Shell to return our land to the original position that our land was.”
On her part, Chief (Mrs) Igwe Benjamin Ngajima, the female ruler of Ekpangbala sub-community under Ogale, said oil spills have impacted women. “You cannot get a bag of cassava from an acre of land in this community. Our cowpeas are not growing, cocoayam are not growing, all our crops are not growing well and do not grow well again. Their years of pollution have caused us strange sicknesses. Look at the whole crowd here if you can see up to two pregnant women. Our women are suffering from infertility. Shell should come and remediate our environment, pay us adequate compensation or they should leave this land for us,” she stated.
Shell and other oil multinationals have been divesting the shallow and onshore assets in the Niger Delta, withouremediation, a development that has been met with resistance and concerns.
It is hoped that the decision of the UK will set in motion the grounds for Niger Delta communities to compel the federal government of Nigeria and oil jants to commence remediation of the entire Niger Delta region.