Ogoni accuse Shell of using force

Nigeria’s ethnic Ogoni minority activists, at a rally to mark their campaign for more political control over their southern oil-rich district, accused oil giant Royal/Dutch Shell of using force to return to their abandoned oil fields in the area, local newspapers said on Friday.
‘The Guardian’, a Lagos daily, reported that the leader of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), Ledim Mitee, as telling a rally on Thursday in the main Ogoni town of Bori that Shell was using a government security shield to return to facilities it abandoned in 1993. Shell left these locations following protests by local residents who accused the company of causing environmental degradation over decades.
However, a Shell spokesman told IRIN on Friday the company was unaware of any fresh developments in the area of the type the MOSOP leader described.
“We have seen those reports in the media today, we are not aware of any new developments. But we reiterate that our interest remains broad-based reconciliation, peace and progress,” he said.
[For full report see item titled ‘NIGERIA: Ogoni accuse Shell of using force’]