Aug 13 (Lagos) - Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to pay around €95m (£80.4m/$111.6m) to communities in southern Nigeria over crude oil spills in 1970, lawyers involved in the case have said.
The decision is the latest involving Opec-member Nigeria’s oil-producing south where communities have long fought legal battles over oil spills and environmental damage.
“The order for the payment of [$111m] to the claimants is for full and final satisfaction of the judgement,” a local spokesman for Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria said on Wednesday.
Lucius Nwosa, a lawyer representing the Ejama-Ebubu community in Rivers state, confirmed the decision.
“They ran out of tricks and decided to come to terms,” the lawyer said. “The decision is a vindication of the resoluteness of the community for justice.”
REACTION
This is a huge win for the Ogoni community. They are finally getting some justice after more than a decade of court hearings. However justice delayed is justice denied.
Shell should have been made to pay at least $1 billion for the long lasting damage they caused. This is a small slap on the wrist for the Company. This is actually a good news for Shell and we can expect their shares to rally on this measly settlement. Executives of the company will breathe a sigh of relief after this judgement. Sometimes you win even if you lose. That is the case here.
Had these spills taken place in the Western world, definitely SHELL would have paid billions. And it would not have taken 50 years.
reporting for easykobo.com on Friday, August 13 2021 from Lagos, Nigeria