Niger Delta Women Drag Shell, Agip, IOCs before Environmental Tribunal

... as 80 Women test Positive to Benzene in Otuabagi Community By Kelechi Nwaucha

Women from communities in the Niger Delta have dragged international oil companies, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Total E&P and Agip Oil Company, before an Environmental Tribunal, sitting in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, August 7, 2024, accusing the multinationals of gross environmental degradation and destruction of their ecosystem. This was as report indicate "serious cases of benzene accumulation" among women living in Otuabagi, the first oil-bearing community in Nigeria, with 80 of those sampled testing positive to the existence of the carcinogen in their blood. Laying their complaints before a 'Mock Environmental Tribunal,' organised by Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Centre, with support from WoMin African Alliance, Niger Delta women from Okwuzi, Eleme, Rumuekpe (in Rivers State) and Otuabagi (in Ogbia, Bayelsa State) presented a long list of woes that included benzene accumulation, air pollution, soil poisoning, deprivation of livelihood sources, among others. In the case brought before the tribunal against Shell Petroleum Development Company, by Otuabagi Women's Initiative, Mitema Suoye George who lamented the impact of oil exploration on the health of women in her community, said "I'm a widow, suffering in the community, with my children." Oil was first found in commercial quantity in Nigeria in 1956 in Otuabagi community (though popularly referred to then as Oloibiri). 58 years down the line, Otuabagi women are paying the price with their health. Mitema Suoye George told the tribunal in Port Harcourt on Wednesday that "My grandmother, my mother suffered for it. I come to grow up to see that women in my community are not growing old like other communities. So when my grandmother died, I said, why is this thing happening like this now? Are we going to die like that at that age too? "We thought that maybe it's a generational curses. not knowing that those problems are in our bodies. Not knowing that it's the ground (oil) that is affecting us," she said. Martha Egbe, an indigene of Eleme Local Government Area in Rivers State, told the tribunal that "Shell could not manage their product. So, their pipes started leaking and polluted all our waters." According to Egbe, environmentalist and MOSOP president, Andy Wai-Ogosu, after conducting tests on the Okulu River, said that there is up to three feet of oil on the river. Executive Director of Kebetkache, Dr Emem Okon, whose organisation commissioned the report on Otuabagi women, said the Environmental Tribunal "is one of the activities Kebetkache holds to amplify the voices of community members, particularly women, on the environmental challenges that they experience in their communities." Read more: https://phmundial.com/niger-delta-women-drag-shell-agip-iocs-before-environmental-tribunal/