The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has raised the alarm following reports that Shell may be attempting to thwart the recommended cleanup of Ogoniland through  a deal with a local company called Belema Oil. Shell is said to have sold its oil blocks in Ogoniland to Belema oil, and drilling is set to commence as the company has reached agreement with some community chiefs who are being used to collate signatures endorsing the sale of the oil in Ogoniland.

Some top Shell officials are believed to have strong links with the company. Community sources also revealed that that some Ogoni community leaders were recently flown to Lagos to hold secret meetings on the oil block sale and may have been compromised after which they received documents with which to collect signatures from the Ogoni people as consent to the sale of Ogoni Oil.

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Shell compensation for Bodo, not yet Uhuru – ERA/FoEN

The agreement by Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) to pay 55 million (N15.3 billion) pound compensation to the Bodo community over two spill incidents in 2008 is a welcome development that should open doors for more communities that have suffered Shell’s environmental assaults to seek legal redress, the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has said.

Shell’s decision to pay the community was arrived at after a settlement meeting with the affected community. While Shell continues to circulate press releases claiming it took responsibility immediately the incident happened, ERA/FoEN, in a statement issued in Lagos, said “the unrelenting quest for justice by the Bodo community even after six years of frustrating negotiations forced the hands of Shell. The victory goes to the people”

ERA/FoEN Executive Director, Godwin Ojo said: “While we see this agreement as a victory for the Bodo community folks who have suffered ecocide and loss of livelihoods, it is also a glimmer of hope for communities that have endured massive degradation from Shell’s leaking and ill-maintained facilities in the Ogoni and elsewhere in the Niger Delta”.

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Shell has hijacked UNEP report implementation process, ERA/FoEN Alleges

The inauguration of a committee for the implementation of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) report on Ogoniland is a welcome development but with the Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke in the driver’s seat, Shell has obviously hijacked the process, the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has alerted.

Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, who inaugurated the Committee, said the move is part of government’s efforts to seek an enduring solution to the issue. The 14-member Committee is to propose a focused engagement and implementation plan with clearly defined steps and is also mandated to advise the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP) Advisory Council on the manner in which assets and funds of the project may be held and utilised.

But ERA/FoEN in a statement issued in Lagos said that the minister’s involvement in the process and the inclusion of HYPREP in the exercise clearly makes a mockery of the demands of the Ogoni and civil society groups as clearly spelt out in the UNEP report.

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National Tobacco Control Bill Should Conform With Global Convention
 
A coalition of civil society groups have urged the Senate to ensure that the National Tobacco Control Bill (NTCB) which will be open for public hearing on Wednesday (October 15, 2014) is in conformity with the provisions of the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC).
 
Nigeria has signed and ratified the convention.
 
The groups: Environmental Rights Action, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center (CISLAC), and the National Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA) in a statement issued in Abuja, said a tobacco control bill that is in sync with the FCTC will not only promote public health , but also be fulfilling Nigeria’s obligation under the FCTC. They insisted that the parliament must plug any loophole that  can be exploited by the tobacco industry to undermine the spirit and intention of the bill.
ERA/FoEN Director, Corporate Accountability, Akinbode Oluwafemi said: “The public hearing on the National Tobacco Control Bill is a welcome development and presents another opportunity for our lawmakers in the Senate to side with the people by ensuring that the bill is in tandem with the FCTC which is  the first global health treaty.

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Abuja August 4, 2014

The systemic failure of the Nigerian government and oil giant Shell to clean up the horrendous oil pollution in the Niger Delta has been branded “shameful”by a group of Nigerian and international organisations today.

A damning report, released today by Environmental Rights Action,Friends of Earth Europe, Amnesty International, Platform and the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD), exposes a shocking lack of action by Shell and the Nigerian Government to clean up the widespread pollution in Ogoniland, despite recommendations made by a major UN study three years ago today [1].

The UN Environment Programme published a scientific study on the Ogoniland region of the Niger Delta in 2011 [2], exposingextensive oil pollution, severe health risks for the population – including previously unacknowledged pollution of drinking water – and fundamental failures in Shell’s processes for cleaning up oil spills.

Godwin Ojo of Friends of the Earth Nigeria said:“Three years on and the government and Shell have done little more than set up processes that look like action but are just fig leaves for business as usual.The lack of meaningful action in the face of incontrovertible scientific evidence is outrageous. The Nigerian government and Shell are quite simply getting away with environmental and human rights abuses in the Niger Delta.”

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Respond to Shell allegation of non-release of Ogoni remediation funds, ERA/FoEN tells FG

The disclosure by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) that the Nigerian government was frustrating the release of funds for the implementation of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Assessment on Ogoniland has come as a rude shock and the Ogoni people demand an answer, the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has said.

Augustine Igbuku, the Ogoni Restoration Project Manager for SPDC told the House of Representatives Committee on Environment that Shell was willing to contribute to the $1 billion Ogoni Restoration Fund but was being frustrated by the lack of government structure and a legal framework for the Hydrocarbon Restoration Project (HYPREP), the ad hoc intervention agency set up by the same government.

The Shell official also identified lack of work plan by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources for the proposed cleanup and the utilization of the funds as part of the delay.
But in a press release issued in Lagos, ERA/FoEN said, “we find the Nigerian government’s laid-back attitude to the remediation exercise very sad and bewildering because while Shell tries to absolve itself from the current impasse it actually benefits from the Nigerian government inaction while the Ogoni environment and people suffer”.

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Shell immediately commence decommissioning of your abandoned facilities in Ogoniland.

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, ERA/FoEN, has called on visiting Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, Lilianne Ploumen, to pressure Shell to comply with and implement the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, report on Ogoniland. The UNEP Assessment released on August 4, 2011, contains recommendations for clean up and remediation of the Niger Delta
community.

ERA/FoEN is re-echoing a call that has been made consistently in the last three years since the release of the report following the failure of the Nigerian government to compel Shell to begin clean-up of the heavily polluted community in Rivers State.

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Message to Mark World Environment Day 2014

Today is world Environment Day, we join our voices with those of fellow brethren and Earth Stakeholders to demand that this undemocratic and sometimes certified exploitation often transference of ownership and management of resources from citizens and communities to private hands as led by corporations come to an end.

We demand that production of resources and the labour exerted in such exercises should include the local communities and people, and stop reducing their input to that of mere bystanders in the entire processes of ownership, decisions, production and use of outputs.

We demand that we keep our Earth and her resources in the hands of the peoples who understands that they are part of Us and not commodities for profiting.

We say NO TO COMMODIFICATION of Earth's resources.
We say Yes to Life and No Exploitation
In addition, today we raise our voice against climate criminals who continue to push the planet to the brink. To keep sea levels from rising we raise our voices against gas flaring and other climate changing activities.

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Release Ofehe Unconditionally, ERA/FoEN tells Nigerian Police

The detention of Niger Delta activist, Sunny Ofehe by the Bayelsa State Command of the Nigeria Police allegedly in connection with the abduction of some Dutch nationals is a throwback to the military era when activists were framed and their rights violated at will, the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has said.
ERA/FoEN position is premised on the fact that the grounds for Ofehe’s arrest were not made public. What is known however is that last weekend he was kidnapped by militants in a speedboat together with three Dutch nationals and a Nigerian while making a documentary about oil pollution in the Niger Delta.
Ofehe and the Nigerian were released by the kidnappers last Monday (May 5), but werere-arrested by the police. He was reported to have sent a Short Message Service (SMS) from the police station in Yenagoa were he was being tortured.

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Be wary of coal mining deal with Jindal, ERA/FoEN cautions Nigerian Govt

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has cautioned the Federal Government from going ahead with a rumoured deal with Jindal Power and Steel India to revitalize coal mining in the country, describing the rumour, if true as “a bad omen” for communities already suffering environmental impacts of mining in Enugu and other states where coal is mined.

Media reports last week indicated that the Nigerian government may have tipped the Indian firm to tap the country’s coal vast mine deposits. ERA/FoEN aversion to the plan is predicated on news indicating that Jindal operations in other parts of Africa continue to impact communities.

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