By Nneka Nwogwugwu
After 13 years of civil case involving four Nigerian farmers, a Dutch court has finally ordered the Nigerian subsidiary of Shell to pay Nigerian farmers compensation over oil spills in the Niger Delta region.
The Dutch branch of Friends of the Earth made this known in a tweet posted last Friday.
Donald Pols, head of the NGO’s Dutch branch wrote, “Tears of joy here. After 13 years, we’ve won.
“Fantastic news for the environment and people living in developing countries.
“It means people in developing countries can take on the multinationals who do them harm,” he said.
The Court of Appeal in The Hague on Friday ruled that the Nigerian arm of the British-Dutch company must issue payouts over a long-running civil case involving four Nigerian farmers who were seeking compensation, and a clean-up, from the company over pollution caused by leaking oil pipelines.
According to Aljazeera, the court held Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary liable for two leaks that spewed oil over an area of a total of about 60 football pitches in two villages, saying that it could not be established “beyond a reasonable doubt” that saboteurs were to blame.
The Hague appeals court ruled that sabotage was to blame for an oil leak in another village.
However, it said that the issue of whether Shell can be held liable “remains open” and the case will be continued as the court wants clarification about the extent of the pollution and whether it still has to be cleaned up.
Under Nigerian law, which was applied in the Dutch civil case, the company is not liable if the leaks were the result of sabotage.
“Shell Nigeria is sentenced to compensate farmers for damages,” the court said in its ruling, which can be appealed via the Dutch Supreme Court.
The amount of compensation will be established at a later date. The court did not specify how many of the four farmers would receive compensation.
The court did not hold Shell’s parent company, which is based in the Netherlands, directly responsible.
Reacting to the judgement, Shell said it continues to believe the spills were caused by sabotage, adding it was dismayed that its Nigerian subsidy – the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) – was judged to be culpable.
“We are … disappointed that this court has made a different finding on the cause of these spills and in its finding that SPDC is liable,” the company said in a statement.
“Like all Shell-operated ventures globally, we are committed to operating safely and protecting the local environment.”
