By Davies Iheamnachor & Gift Nwankpa

OGONI—FRESHcontroversy has broken out between the Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC and Ogoni people in Rivers State over the implementation of the United Nations Environmental Programme, UNEP environmental assessment report on Ogoni land. Multinational oil companies operating in the area destroyed the environment, but four years after the UNEP report, unhealthy bickering delayed the implementation until President Muhammadu Buhari boldly intervened.

However, a recent publication by SDPC in a national newspaper that it had implemented over 70 percent of the report on Ogoni land did not go down well with community stakeholders. SPDC stated that it had completed 16 out of the 22 actions of the UNEP’s Ogoni Environmental Assessment report recommended for operators, while five were ongoing.

The oil firm also accused Ogoni people of not stopping oil theft and illegal oil refining along the Shell JV Right of Way (RoW) in Ogoni Similarly, SPDC provided new information that it had remediated 368 of 470 documented spills in Ogoni with 32 sites at different stages remediation.

Ken Saro-Wiwa  Associates slams Shell

Nonetheless,  Ogoni through the Ken Saro-Wiwa Associates, a pressure group, i took a swipe at SPDC over the claim that it had commenced implementation of UNEP      report on Ogoni land, describing the claim as misleading. National coordinator of the group, Chief Gani Topba, who described the claim as a fallacy, stated that SPDC has not done anything as regards the implementation of the report.

Topba told Niger Delta Voice that what SPDC published was a mere fabrication lacking substance, adding that nothing has changed in Ogoni communities. Topba said, “The statement by SPDC only confirms that in spite of its public posture, it is institutionally against the proper implementation of the UNEP report on Ogoni land.”

“They have not done anything in any Ogoni community that has to do with the directives given by UNEP “SPDC should be reminded that their long term denial of their operational failures as being responsible for the spills in Bodo and its community’s resolve to prove this, culminated in SPDC’s pay out of monetary compensation to Bodo in an out-of-court settlement,” he said.

He called on the SPDC to tender an unreserved apology to the people of Ogoni for trying to misinform the public, threatening that the people of Ogoni would hold the company responsible for the delay in the commencement of implementation of the report if they failed to apologize.