Ogoni protest non-implementation of UNEP report, disrupt oil operations

The protesters blocked access to major oil facilities in Ogoniland.
Hundreds of indigenes of communities in Ogoniland on Tuesday made good their threat to disrupt operations of oil companies in Rivers State as they blocked all routes leading to major oil facilities in the area.
Following the United Nations Environmental Programme, UNEP, report on the environment in Ogoniland released in 2011, the people demanded the immediate implementation of the recommendations of a review committee, within 90 days.
The report had attracted international outrage following the indictment of oil companies operating in the area, particularly, Shell Petroleum Developmemt Company, SPDC, Nigeria’s largest producer, over environmental devastation of the communities in over five decades of oil operations in the country.
The report recommended that the federal government and Shell take steps to remediate and restore the environment, in addition to the payment of compensation to the people of the affected communities for years of destruction of their environment.
But, following the failure by government to implement the recommendations of a review committee, the Ogoni had threatened serious consequences against both Shell and government.
A member of one of the communities in Ogoniland, who is also an environmental rights activist belonging to Social Action group, Celestine Akpobari, told PREMIUM TIMES that the people decided to embark on the blockade of the oil facilities in the area on Tuesday following the expiration of a 90 days deadline.
Mr. Akpobari said though the action was in its first day, all roads leading in and out of major oil facilities in the area, including refineries and petrochemical plants were effectively blocked and their operations shutdown.
“Activties at the refinery and petochemical plants have ground to a halt,” he said. “We would not allow such activities, incluidng the lifting of petroleum products, to resume until government meets our demands. If by the end of the day we see no visible positive response from government, we would not hesitate to move to cripple oil exports in the next couple of days.
“All operations along the crude oil pipelines traversing communities in Ogoniland have been forced to stop till further notice.”