Nigerian police tear gas anti-Shell rally

international | environment | other press

Wednesday November 24, 2004 13:21

by Brain Chew

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigerian police have used tear gas on thousands of protesters at a rally against oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell in the oil-rich city of Port Harcourt.

From:Reuters
Wednesday, 24th November, 2004

By Austin Ekeinde

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigerian police have used tear gas on thousands of protesters at a rally against oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell in the oil-rich city of Port Harcourt.

The rally at Shell's local headquarters on Wednesday was held by members of the Ogoni ethnic group after the expiration of an ultimatum last month to withdraw Nigerian troops, deployed in the 1990's to protect Shell's oil facilities, from their tribal lands.

"We gave Shell an ultimatum to withdraw military and paramilitary personnel from Ogoniland, but they have not given any attention to it, that is why we are protesting today," said Moses Damgbor, secretary general of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP).

Shell has denied having anything to do with the deployment of troops to Ogoniland and has said that it is not in a hurry to return. It was accused of supporting military operations against activists there in the 1990's before abandoning its oilfields.

Damgbor said a handful of people were injured as they fled tear gas and a police charge against the protesters.

Tension has heightened since September in the Niger Delta, where most of Nigeria's 2.5 million barrels per day of oil is pumped. The Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force rebel group had threatened to blow up oil facilities in the eastern delta region near Port Harcourt.

Earlier this month, ethnic Ijaw militants invaded a Shell oil flow station in the western delta. Seventeen militants were injured by police.

Shell, which has been blamed for environmental degradation in Ogoniland is fighting a class-action suit that accuses the company of supporting military operations by Nigeria's former government against the Ogoni in the 1990's.

Tension rose in Ogoniland last month after a spill from the 24-inch Trans-Niger pipeline which carries crude from Shell's oilfields to Shell's Bonny export terminal damaged crops and polluted creeks.

Ogonis have recently celebrated the ninth anniversary of the execution of their former leader, campaigner and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa who was hung by the junta of late military dictator Sani Abacha in 1995.

Copyright Reuters.