Bonga oil spill victims drag Shell to UK court

A GROUP, under the aegis of Oil Spill Victims Vanguard, OSPIVV, has dragged Royal-Dutch Shell Plc, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company, SNEPCO, to court in the United Kingdom over its failure to pay N3,600,191,206.00 compensation to affected victims and communities of the Bonga Oil Field.

 OSPIVV Executive Director, Harrison Jalla, disclosed this in a chat with newsmen in Effurun, Delta State, yesterday.

Jalla stated that he filed a “Pre-Action Notice” on September 21, 2017 in the TCC High Court of Justice in London through his lawyers, Johnson & Steller Solicitors of Hanover Square, Mayfair, on behalf of the victims and communities affected by the Bonga Oil Field Spills of December 20, 2011 when SNEPCO, due to equipment failure in their Bonga Oil Field, discharged over 40,000 barrels of crude oil into the Atlantic Ocean.
Jalla claimed that 1, 686,000 persons in over 350 communities were negatively affected by the spill.

He further claimed that the pollution from the discharge, which covered a distance of 185 kilometres along the Nigerian coast line compelled fishermen to desert the sea, polluted farmlands, vegetation and contaminated the environment in Ekeremor, Southern Ijaw and Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State and Warri South West, Warri North and Burutu local Government areas of Delta State and some riverine areas in Ondo State.