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Bonga Oil Spill: Shell May have compromised Senate Committee, Media

By on January 2, 2012

A senate committee led by Bukola Saraki, investigating the oil spilled by Shell off the coast of Nigeria at its Bonga facility, has praised Shell for its prompt efforts to checkmate the spill and avert any environmental disaster.

Saraki stated, “we just came back from the oil facility of Bonga where the oil spill took place and the committee saw that a lot of work has been done by shell to curtail the oil spill and they were able to respond because they are up to the task and that is what we expect from other oil companies that are operating in Nigeria”.

He added, “We have also witness a third party oil spill but we cannot say if it from Bonga or not but the third party oil spill has reached the shore line. But we want to appeal the communities that are affected to allow for a proper investigation and test to be carried out in order to ascertain the source of the third oil spill. We want to ensure that as a committee that we bring home the best international standard in dealing with issues like this”.

Online publication, Sahara reporters have alleged that members of the Senate Committee and media houses in Nigeria have been compromised by Shell and bribed with large sums of money in order to ensure that they are not penalized by the Nigerian government.

Shell has recently been indicted by the United Nations and ordered to clean up oil spills it has made over time in the country.

The Nigerian government has not fined Shell any amount of money for this recent fine, and information on past fines show that the Nigerian government refuses to be strict on oil majors like Shell that routinely pollute Nigerian waterways, kill our fish and generally harm our environment.

In saner climes this is not the norm, Brazil recently fined Chevron $ 7 million for spilling less than 5,000 barrels of oil. The south American country has also fined Chevron over $ 25 million in the past for other oil spill infractions.