11/02/2008 18:12 ABUJA, Feb 11 (AFP)
Nigeria said Monday that oil companies should be obliged to pay compensation for degradation resulting from their exploration and production activities particularly in the oil-rich Niger Delta region.
“The companies have an obligation beyond their exploration and production to restore degraded land to its original state,” junior petroleum minister Odein Ajumogobia told a conference on 50 years of discovery of oil in Nigeria.
Oil was actually discovered in Nigeria in 1956 at Oloibiri in the Niger Delta state of Bayelsa but the first shipment to the international market was in 1958.
“They have an obligation to pay compensation for damaged property in the area,” Ajumogobia said, without giving any figure or percentage, in reaction to a comment by Shell Country Chairman Basil Omiyi, who said Niger Delta development was not the role of the oil companies.
“It’s not the role of the companies to develop the Niger Delta. It’s the role of the government to develop the Niger delta. It’s not the responsibility of the private sector to play the role of the government,” Omiyi said in his presentation at the conference.
“I recognise that the oil companies could have some responsibilities toward their neighbours, it is the primary role of government to do development because they recieve money for doing so,” Omiyi said.
The governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva, lamented the plight of the host communities and described as unfortunate the state of development in Oloibiri in particular.
“Today, if you go back to Oloibiri, all of you here will be ashamed of this oil industry because Oloibiri still remains one of the most underdeveloped communities in Nigeria today and maybe in the whole world,” Sylva said.
Declaring the conference open, Nigeria’s Vice President Goodluck Jonathan criticised Shell for failing to organise a similar conference two years ago to mark the 50 years of oil discovery as the pioneer company that made the discovery.
“There is a sense in which it can be said that today’s occasion is coming late,” Jonathan said.
“One would have expected that Shell would have marked the 50th anniversary of the discovery of oil two years ago with a landmark event backed by a programme of action clearly designed to set a path for a new beginning. But this did not happen,” Jonathan said.
Jonathan said “government has given serious thought as to how best to bring about “a win-win situation on the matter of the Niger Delta.”
“There are value and orientation issues and we are taken them to the door steps of the communities, there are compelling corporate responsibility obligations and corporations doing business in the area are being sensitised and told to do what is right,” Jonathan said.
©2008 AFP
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Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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