Niger Delta Demands for Justice Undaunted By Decades of Violence

IPS News

11 February 2011

Niger Delta Demands for Justice Undaunted By Decades of Violence

DAKAR and LAGOS, Feb 11, 2011 (IPS) - Nigerian environmental rights groups have been making the case for the expulsion of oil companies from the Niger Delta in the southeastern part of the country at the World Social Forum in Dakar.

Speaking at a meeting organised by a group of Nigerian women's environmental rights activists, Goodison Jim Dorgu, the Executive Director of the NGO Environmental Health and Safety Network, based in the oil-producing state of Bayelsa, said Nigerian civil society has come to the united conclusion that oil companies responsible for severe environmental degradation should leave without delay.

"We feel that the oil companies should leave the shores of the Niger Delta. There have to be fresh negotiations if there has to be oil extraction and communities should be at the dialogue to represent themselves in the negotiations," said Dorgu.

Dorgu was speaking at a Feb. 9 session at the World Social Forum in Dakar, organised by Nigerian environmental justice activists, mostly women from the oil-rich Niger Delta. Other speakers outlined how the oil industry has provoked violence in the Delta, with women bearing the brunt of the assault.

Emem Okon, the head of the Women's Development and Resource Centre in the city of Port Harcourt, alleged that the oil companies' own security personnel have been involved in attacks on women. She also said the Nigerian army had committed grave violations of human rights.