By Obiabin Onukwugha
Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), has stated that it is leading the campaign against the divestment of oil assets by multinationals because the companies want to shy away from their liabilities.
ERA/FoEN said the IOCs started divesting their assets after realising that communities in the Niger Delta have become aware of their environmental rights and are now seeking justice.
Executive Director of ERA/FoEN, Barr Chima Williams, stated this at a webinar organised by the body on Thursday.
Williams, who recalled how ERA/FoEN led four communities in the Niger Delta to obtain judgement against Shell in the Netherlanders in 2021, said the IOCs started divesting after the judgment.
Williams described the move by the oil multinationals as an attempt to “abandon their liabilities and run away”.
The ERA/FoEN Executive Director said the aim of the webinar was to interrogate the real reasons why the IOCs were leaving. Williams posited that ERA/FoEN is particularly concerned on the negative impact of the divestment as some of the indigenous companies are not aware of the state of the assets they are acquiring.
Chima who recalled the difficulties AITEO recently faced in putting out a recent blow out in its newly acquired facility in Brass local government area of Bayelsa State, posited that the oil companies have over the years pitched communities against its citizens through divide and rule tactics while shortchanging the federal government of Nigeria through tax evasions and petro-dollar politics.
Chima accused the oil companies of retaining their assets in the deep sea because communities will not be able to monitor their activities.
Williams further stated that while oil multinationals have the right to sell off their assets, such rights no longer exist in absolute because of the devastation they have wrought on the environment in their years of oil exploration and exploitation activities.
He said: “If you are leaving put us back to the way you met us. If you cannot make us better, then take us to where we were and restitute the years of deprivation.”
Williams who further stated that some of the divestment moves of the oil companies such as Eni/NAOC and Mobil were yet to scale through because of the campaign by ERA/FoEN.
He, therefore, called on the National Assembly to come up with a legislation to regulate and determine divestment in the country.