The plan by Shell to sell its Nigerian subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and other multinational oil companies without cleaning up the pollution in the Niger Delta communities and restoring the ecosystem has sparked protests in Bayelsa State.
Women from Bayelsa and other Niger Delta states who decried the plan staged a protest at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) press centre in Yenagoa over the weekend, reports Daily Trust.
They said husbands in the region could no longer impregnate their wives due to toxic environmental pollution from the oil exploration and urged the federal government to reject the request by the oil companies to divest without first cleaning up the polluted environment.
Presenting their position paper signed by Mrs Emem Okon of Kebetkache Women Development & Resource Centre and over 15 women groups in the region to the officials of the NUJ, the protesters said that Shell’s decision to sell SPDC and all onshore assets to investors without consulting communities is unhealthy, unethical, irresponsible, and therefore unacceptable.
Speaking during the protest, Barr. Dise Ogbise-Goddy of Do Foundation stated that it was injustice for Shell to divest from onshore without restoring the ecosystem in Niger Delta, which they have polluted over the years.
