Lagos — The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has called on Western countries to pass a law compelling companies to enforce the same environmental responsibility standards both abroad and at home.

ERA/FoEN Director, Programmes and Administration, Godwin Uyi Ojo, in a statement issued by the group's Head of Media, Philip Jakpor, in Lagos said oil companies treat spill incidents in Nigeria differently from other pollutions in other parts of the world.

"Shell's volte face in the face of incontrovertible evidence has again shown the double standards of oil companies in treating spills incidents in Nigeria", Ojo said.

The statement was in reaction to Wednesday Dutch court ruling which held Shell liable for the pollution of fish ponds and farmlands in Ikot Ada Udo, a community in Akwa Ibom State.

The group commended the ruling, describing it as a "major watershed in the quest for environmental justice in the Niger Delta."