Press Releases
Niger Delta activist to stand trial in Holland
Sunny Ofehe, known as Comrade Sunny to his friends and colleagues, is to stand trial today in a Rotterdam court on charges of conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism. Ofehe was arrested on 22 February 2011, originally on “suspicion of people smuggling and forgery” and has been in detention since then. The Dutch authorities [...]
The world’s biggest data leak
On Friday 2 September, Wikileaks finally published the full batch of over 250,000 secret US diplomatic cables. The unredacted archive of cables is now available online. The decision to dump the data in the open has landed Wikileaks in further controversy and drawn condemnation from its former media partners around the world, due to the possible risk of [...]
UNEP report on oil spills in Ogoni: a summary from SDN
If you don’t have the time to read UNEP’s 262 page report on the impact of oil spill’s in Ogoni, don’t panic. Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN), a group that works on the ground in the Niger Delta supporting community rights, has produced this helpful summary. As we noted previously, UNEP’s findings are particularly damning for Shell. As the main [...]
UNEP report omits Shell’s massive oil spills, says expert
A pattern of omissions has emerged since the UNEP report was published last week. An oil spill expert, journalists and a coalition of environmental groups have taken issue with what the report left out. (Shell commissioned UNEP’s 2 year study and was the sole funder of the $9 million investigation into the ecological impact of oil spills [...]
The long struggle for justice in Ogoni
US-based EarthRights International (ERI) use the law to defend human rights and the environment. They recently posted up their perspective on Shell’s admission of liability for oil spills in Bodo, Ogoni. ERI’s super-hot legal team worked with other leading human rights advocates to hold Shell accountable for its active involvement in crimes against humanity in [...]
“Nowhere and no-one has escaped” – message from Bodo, Nigeria
This video, made by Amnesty International, shows the horrifying extent of the pollution in Bodo village, where two oil spills from a burst Shell pipeline devastated the land and water which 70,000 local villagers depend on for their survival.
When will Shell stop these daily oil spills?
Bodo resident, journalist and human rights monitor, Patrick Naagbanton, signed off his Comment piece in The Guardian by saying: We won’t be holding our breath. In an environment which suffers from daily oil spills, locals have learned that the multinationals, in particular Shell, and government authorities, will get away with almost anything. Earlier today I [...]
The Biggest Oil Spill in the World
PLATFORM featured on Channel 4 News this evening, providing analysis on two current news stories – the revelations of the full extent of environmental devastation in Ogoni land contained in the UN’s new report, and Shell’s admission of liability for two recent oil spills in Bodo, Ogoniland. Campaigner Ben Amunwa helped provide background research as [...]
The struggle for justice in Ogoni
Here is a heartfelt comment piece in The Guardian on the local reaction in Ogoni to Shell’s oil spill payout. Shell has admitted liability but has a long way to go to make amends Oil spills destroyed my village in Nigeria and decades of environmental and social injustice are still to be addressed. By Patrick [...]
Breaking: Delta Activists Respond to UNEP Report
Below is a press release from ERA/FoE Nigeria, in response to UNEP’s publication – in the last half hour – of its report on the ecological impact of oil spills in Ogoni. Local activists argue that UNEP’s recommendation for a $1 billion fund for restoration in Ogoni is a token. 4 August 2011 UNEP Report: [...]
