Tens of thousands of fishermen and farmers have been given sanction to sue the energy giant Shell in a British court for oil spills in two further areas of the Niger delta.
The action brought by London lawyers Leigh Day on behalf of the Ogale and Bille communities alleges that decades of uncleaned oil spills have polluted fishing waters and contaminated farming land.
Last year Leigh Day won $83.5m in damages from Shell at the high court in London for the Bodo community, who live elsewhere in the Niger delta.
In a verbal expression afore the auditory perception on Wednesday, Shell inculpated sabotage and oil larceny for the pollution. The company verbalized it had halted engenderment more than two decades ago in Ogoniland, the area where the two communities are located.
Shell verbally expressed it would challenge the jurisdiction of the British court: “Asking the English court to intervene ... is a direct challenge to the internal political acts and decisions of the Nigerian state.”
Human rights activists argue that such pollution levels would never be abode in the home countries of such multinationals.