Nigerian Times

Photo Credit: From "Goodnight and Goodluck Jonathan: The Niger Delta Cries Out for EcoJustice" on Daily Kos . 4 Aug 2011 13:36 Africa/Lagos UN confirms massive oil pollution in Niger delta LONDON, August 4, 2011/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- The oil company Shell has had a disastrous impact on the human rights of the people living in the Niger Delta in Nigeria, said Amnesty International, responding to a UN report on the effects of oil pollution in Ogoniland in the Delta region. The report from the United Nations Environment Programme is the first of its kind in Nigeria and based on two years of in-depth scientific research. It found that oil contamination is widespread and severe, and that people in the Niger Delta have been exposed for decades. “This report proves Shell has had a terrible impact in Nigeria, but has got away with denying it for decades, falsely claiming they work to best international standards,” said Amnesty International Global Issues Director, Audr...

Amnesty or Travesty? I have decided not to approve the so called Amnesty the Federal Government has given to the so called militants in the Niger Delta region, because the celebrated Nigerian Nobel Laureate in Literature, Prof. Wole Soyinka already spoken my mind in his critical analysis of the anomie in Between Amnesty and Amnesia . The recourse to Amnesty after the punitive campaign of the Joint Task Force (JTF) failed woefully is begging the question of the Niger Delta crisis and not a solution. The solution to the Niger Delta crisis is not a Herculean task if the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) wants to be truly honest and transparent. The bloody battle in the Niger Delta over resource control is actually a power struggle between mercenaries of the oligarchy in Nigeria fighting over illegal oil bunkering in the oil rich states of the Niger Delta. Both the serving and retired top military officers are actively engaged in the criminal operation of illegal oil bunkering and th...