Bonga oil spill: Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Balyesa, Delta, Ondo fishermen seek Tinubu’s intervention over $3.5b Shell award
By Victor Siokwu - in Niger Delta
Fishermen Group in the Niger Delta appeal to President Tinubu to prevail on Shell to pay compensation awarded for the the fishermen more than a decade ago
Members of the Artisan Fishermen Association of Nigeria in Niger Delta have urged President Bola Tinubu to compel the Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited to pay $3.6 billion awarded to them as compensation for the 2011 Bonga oil spill.
The fishermen, in a petition titled ‘Save Our Soul’, said it was the resolution of the group that President Tinubu help intervene in ensuring Shell was made to fulfill the financial obligation.
According to the copy of the petition jointly signed by Alexander Mesogboriwon, Jeremiah Omogbemi, Olamiyeye Jeje, Anthony Erejuwa and, Erukubami Durojaye, they lamented that the oil spillage had contaminated kilometers of fishing coast line of Akwa-Ibom, Rivers, Balyesa, Delta and Ondo States, and had
foisted untold hardship, forcing them to suspend fishing activities and trade on the coastal waters.
The oil spillage occurred on 20th December, 2011 at the BONGA floating production storage -and offloading platform owned and operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigerian Limited as a result of equipment failure when loading petroleum products from their facility which leaked into sea with over 40,000 (forty thousand) barrel of crude oil.
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