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Nigeria: We'll Not Pay N1bn Compensation - Shell
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Leadership (Abuja)
22 May 2008
Posted to the web 22 May 2008
Philip Nyam
Abuja
Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has declared that it has no obligation to pay N1 billion to Ahoada-West Community of Rivers State for an oil spill caused by vandals in the Bayelsa State area of Ekarama.
The House of Representatives yesterday also lamented the increasing rate of pipeline vandalism and illegal oil bunkering in the oil communities.
Chairman of the House committee, Hon. C.I.D. Maduabum, who made the observation yesterday, called for the discontinuation of the vandalisation of oil installations.
He, however, sympathised with the affected communities but said the activities of the vandals were unacceptable to the House.
Maduabum, who was speaking at a session of the committee to look into the petition brought by the Ahoada community against SPDC, said he had a personal unsavoury experience in the Niger Delta region while aboard a helicopter where he saw members of a community breaking oil lines in "the day time to extract oil flowing from a pipeline."
"I have seen serious criminal activities in some areas in the host communities. The bunkering activity in that area is unbelievable, so the communities too should bear the brunt of all these things."
The host community of Ahoada-West had written a petition to the Committee on Public Petitions with details of the damage caused by the spill-over from an SPDC pipeline from Ekarama to Ahoada-West demanding for a compensation of N1 billion from the company.
But a representative of SPDC, who pleaded anonymity, told the community "that once there is an established case of sabotage, we don't hold discussions on compensation, except that spill is as a result of a leakage from the pipeline."
The legal counsel to the Ahoada host Community, Mr. Abiye C. Atorudibo, who submitted court papers of a preceding court judgement that ordered Shell to pay over N 1 billion compensation to the host community, insisted that though the spillage was an overflow, it was still the responsibility of Shell to pay compensation for the damage.
Mr. Atorudibo told the committee that more than empathy, the community deserved nothing less than a billion naira as compensation for the enormous damage done by the spillage.
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Hearing on the petition continues May 28, 2008 at the National Assembly Complex, Room 429, House of Representatives wing.
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