Shell told to pay Nigeria's Ijaw

[Eugene]

(BBC News)

Last Updated: Friday, 24 February 2006, 20:07 GMT

Shell told to pay Nigeria's Ijaw

A Nigerian court has ordered oil giant Shell and its partners to pay $1.5bn to the Ijaw people
of the Delta region.

The Ijaw have been fighting since 2000 for compensation for environmental degradation in the
oil-rich region.

They took the case to court after Shell refused to make the payment ordered by Nigeria's parliament.

<snip>

Lawyers for the Shell Petroleum Development Company argued in the federal court in Port Harcourt
that the joint committee of the National Assembly that made the order in 2000 did not have
the power to compel the oil company to make the payment.

But Judge Okechukwu Okeke ruled that since both sides had agreed to go before the National Assembly,
the order was binding on both sides.

<snip>

Full article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4746874.stm

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. Morans. Agreeing to a forum, thinking they could bribe their way out

just like they had on every other ocassion.

Shell has done some very bad things there. Not just polution, but shooting indigent tribes just to move them off the land, poisoning their water, crops and animals and herding them like animals.
Shell had permision from the government and tacit approval from the US for decades.