Niger Delta Oil Spill: Group Accuses NOSDRA, Shell Of Compromise

Amnesty International has accused the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), and Shell Petroleum Development Company of corrupt practices in the oil spill clean-up in Nigeria’s Niger delta.

According to a report by the human rights group, entitled “Shell’s false claim about oil spill response in the Niger delta”, NOSDRA certified as clean sites that are visibly contaminated by spillage from the oil giant shell.

Amnesty International’s Country Director, Muhammed Ibrahim, and the Researcher, Business and Human Rights, Mark Dummett, read the report out to journalists on Tuesday in Abuja.

But the Director General of NOSDRA, Mr Peter Odabor, denied the claims, saying they are false.

Amnesty International’s indictment came two months after President Muhammadu Buhari directed that the recommendations of the United Nations Environmental Program on the clean-up of oil spill sites in the Niger delta be implemented.

The group in the report claimed that Shell lied about her responses to oil spillage in the Niger delta and that some of the sites certified as clean by NOSDRA are still contaminated.

Some communities in the Niger delta region of Nigeria has suffered from decades of oil spill and other forms of pollution resulting from the activities of vandals and oil companies in the region.