The Ogale community in Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State is demanding for environmental justice over years of oil pollution suffered in their land.
The people in their thousands barricaded the manifold of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in the community, lamenting that despite efforts by the federal government to clean up the environment, the oil multinational continues to re-pollute the area.
Indigenes and residents of the community in their black attire had a peaceful protest on Thursday, at the front of the Shell facility with their various placards lamenting years of environmental damages in the community.
According to the community leaders, the protest was in solidarity with the ongoing suit before a UK High Court filed by Ogale and Bille communinites against Shell over pollution.
About 10 years ago residents from the Bille and Ogale communities in Rivers approached the UK High Court, where they claimed that their livelihoods had been destroyed and homes damaged by hundreds of oil spills allegedly caused by Shell.
They lamented that the pollution caused widespread devastation to the local environment, killing fish and plant life, leaving thousands of people without access to clean drinking water.
After years of filing the suit, the matter came up for hearing for the first time on Thursday, February 13, 2025. While community representatives and other rights groups stormed the London court to witness the matter, the Ogale people at home decided to embark on the protest in support of the ongoing suit.
Secretary and Legal Adviser for Ogale Council of Chiefs and Elders, Johnson Ngochindo, told journalists during the protest that the community did not have confidence in the Nigerian court and government, reason the matter was filed in the UK High Court where he expressed the belief that they would obtain justice.
Ngochindo said, “We are here to register our dissatisfaction, our anger and displeasure over the activities of Shell. We are here to support our king who is in the UK because of the ongoing case against Shell.
“We have been so devastated, we have been short-changed, maligned by Shell. We are a peaceful community, we are a people who have been blessed with natural resources, but it has turned into a curse in our land. And because we see that we cannot achieve justice in Nigeria, no court in Nigeria can give us justice, that is why we headed for the UK.”
The Ogale legal advisor who also disclosed that the paramount ruler of the community was in court as a party to witness the trial, said “We are asking that the court in London should give us justice. We are short of trust where Nigerian government is because they are collaborators. Shell and Nigerian government are collaborating to short-change the oil bearing communinites, that is why we are seeking help from the international court. The men, women, and youths are dying in their numbers from the environmental pollution”.
On his part, the youth president of Ogale, Noble Obari Worlu, lamented that the community has suffered hundreds of oil spills in recent years, regretting that despite hosting oil multinationals, none has considered proffering solutions to their ill health resulting from the pollution.
Worlu said Ogale people are dying of strange illnesses. “We are suffering from oil spillage on monthly basis. The last one was just last week in this same facility that we are standing in. When will the spillage stop, when will Ogale people get justice, when will Ogale people get clean water to drink, because Shell has contaminated our groundwater.”
The youth president said the community is “demanding that compensation should be paid to Ogale people. There should be adequate health audits for Ogale people to ascertain the level of damage done to our system and how medical treatment can be enforced. They should give us clean water.”
A renowned environmentalist and indigene of Ogoni, Mr. Celestine Akpobari, who also spoke with journalists during the protest, explained that 13,000 farmers from the affected communities filed the suit against Shell in London.
Akpobari, who was at the venue of the protest in solidarity with the community, alongside other human rights activists, said Ogale people are demanding that Shell should pay adequate compensation for loss of livelihoods, for damages caused by the spillages.
He said, “The people are suffering from various health challenges because of the polluted environment. They are here to say enough is enough, that they have suffered so much, that justice should be served.
“As you are aware, on February 2, 2025, there was a major spill from this manifold belonging to Shell. Incidentally, it is the first time they were accepting that the fold was their own because they were flushing the oil from the server pit and that overflow took over the whole community. Till today, people have not recovered from effects.
Noting the challenges faced by the community over the environmental degradation, Akpobari urged the federal government to declare a state of emergency in Ogale.
“Government should come and relocate people that are here, clean up their land, restore natural habitats here, return them back, the people are dying. The money they are spending in Abuja is blood money. People are dying for the money that they are enjoying, they are buying houses and private jets.
“People are dying here, you see somebody in the morning, in the afternoon the person is dead because of bad water, bad air, bad food,” he added.
