Report: UK court to hear Nigerian fishermen’s lawsuit against Shell

A United Kingdom court has ruled that a group of Nigerian fishermen can sue Shell Plc over oil pollution that devastated their communities.

According to Bloomberg, in a statement on Thursday from Leigh Day, the fishermen’s law firm, 13,000 fishermen from the Ogale and Bille communities in the Niger Delta region claimed that Shell violated their right to a clean environment under Nigerian constitutional law. 

In the statement, the judge, on Wednesday, said “I am not going to strike out the claims”.

The judge said such a decision would be “draconian,” given the “catastrophically environmentally damaging oil pollution in the Niger Delta”.

In the report, Shell said the court ruled that the plaintiffs failed to identify the particular spill or spills that caused them damage.

The company added that Ogale and Bille litigation does little to address the root causes of pollution in the Niger Delta.

“Oil is being stolen on an industrial scale in the Niger Delta,” Shell said. 

“This criminality is a major source of pollution and is the cause of the majority of spills in the Bille and Ogale claims.”

Shell has a fraught history in the Niger Delta where frequent spills have led to ongoing legal battles. 

In February 2021, the UK supreme court allowed a group of 42,500 farmers and fishermen from the Ogale and Bille communities to sue Shell over spills.

Meanwhile, Shell won a 2021 Bonga oil spill case at the United Kingdom supreme court.

The Nigerian government had in 2016 sued Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company, demanding N1.3 trillion in compensation for communities affected by the 2011 Bonga oil spills.