Search

Bodo resident, journalist and human rights monitor, Patrick Naagbanton, signed off his Comment piece in The Guardian by saying: We won’t be holding our breath. In an environment which suffers from daily oil spills, locals have learned that the multinationals, in particular Shell, and government authorities, will get away with almost anything. Earlier today I spoke on…

Here is a heartfelt comment piece in The Guardian on the local reaction in Ogoni to Shell’s oil spill payout. Shell has admitted liability but has a long way to go to make amends Oil spills destroyed my village in Nigeria and decades of environmental and social injustice are still to be addressed. By Patrick…

In a potentially ground-breaking development, The Guardian reported today that Shell has accepted liability for two massive oil spills which devastated farmland in Bodo, Ogoniland in 2008. Shell faces a bill of hundreds of millions of dollars after accepting full liability for two massive oil spills that devastated a Nigerian community of 69,000 people and may…

In the week Rupert Murdoch’s media empire came close to collapse, the broadsheet branch of News International, The Times, ran a three part series on Shell in Nigeria. If you aren’t a subscriber, you can read the articles here and here. The paper dedicated plenty of column inches, time and resources to its  “official tour”…

This awesome track is from Niger Delta born, Hamburg-based Afropolitan star: NNEKA. An incredibly talented singer-songwriter, she combines unique vocals with a passion for the struggles of the Niger Delta people. NNEKA has been an outspoken supporter of the campaign for environmental and social justice in the Delta for many years. The song features a…

On 29th June, the Arts Council England finally announced its new “Catalyst Arts” philanthropy programme, aimed at pushing arts organisations towards a US-style corporate and private philanthropy culture. It’s ironic that 3 days later, PLATFORM had a close encounter with censorship from a major arts venue, the Shell-sponsored Southbank Centre, London. As part of the…

On Thursday 7 July, shortly after 6am, women and youth from communities in the Kolo Creek area of the Niger Delta protested against more than a decade of broken promises, oil spills and gas flaring from Shell. With only placards and palm fronds, peaceful protestors confronted heavily armed military soldiers and succeeded in breaching the gates of the Shell…

LAUNCH EVENT: Saturday 25 June, 12-2pm, Bernie Grant Arts Centre, Town Hall Approach Rd, London N15 4RX. MAP: View Larger Map A spectacular life-size steel bus, created as a memorial to Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, will be officially welcomed to its new home in Tottenham as part of Civic Day celebrations on Saturday 25 June.…

The Ogoni community of Bodo has filed a class-action lawsuit at the High Court in London against oil giant Royal Dutch Shell. The case concerns damages caused by two major oil spills from Shell’s Trans-Niger pipeline in 2008-9, both the result of equipment failure. It took Shell several months before they finally clamped the pipeline.…