Chicoco Group Protest

[Robert Cotter <rcotter@mindspring.com>]

  18/8/97 NIGERIA  REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
  
  : NIGERIAN YOUTHS RALLY AGAINST OIL COMPANIES.
  
  By Segun James
  
  ALEIBRI, Nigeria, Aug 18 (Reuter) - At least 1,000 Nigerian youths
  rallied at
  the weekend to protest against oil companies working in the Niger Delta,
  the
  biggest of which is Royal Dutch/Shell, witnesses said.
  
  The rally on Saturday at the remote village of Aleibri in the delta was
  called by activists who are demanding a better deal from oil companies
  and
  threatening possible violence if the multinationals do not comply.
  
  "If they do not accept the path of dialogue we will close down the flow
  stations and if they hide under a military cloak to repress us, then we
  will
  resist," said activist Oronto Douglas of the newly-formed Chicoco group.
  
  Douglas said that although the companies were already talking to local
  communities they always tried to sow division so they could get away
  without
  paying sufficient compensation either to producing areas or for
  pollution
  damage.
  
  Aleibri, to which the youths came by canoe, was chosen as the meeting
  site
  because activists say Shell has refused to clear up a spill there on
  March
  18. Shell says it was caused by sabotage.
  
  "The people would fight until there is freedom in the Niger Delta
  because we
  have been exploited for so long," said Aleibri community leader
  Augustine
  Anthony, a retired naval lieutenant.
  
  Apart from Aleibri, the latest focus for campaigners has become four
  villages
  in the delta where Shell has challenged a court ruling that it must pay
  30
  million naira ($360,000) for a spillage in 1982 which poisoned livestock
  and
  fishing grounds.
  
  Shell has refused on the grounds that it does not pay compensation for
  cases
  caused by sabotage, and cannot set a precedent or other villagers will
  sabotage installations to get compensation money.
  
  Villagers last month threatened to attack Shell flow stations if the
  company
  did not pay up, but the threats have so far come to nothing.
  
  Oil industry officials privately admit that the threat to onshore oil
  production from the mostly Ijaw ethnic group is far greater than that
  from
  the Ogonis who grabbed headlines in the West with their anti-Shell
  campaign.
  
  The hanging of Ogoni activist and author Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight fellow
  activists for murder in 1995 was a global public relations nightmare for
  Shell, which was accused of not putting pressure on Nigeria's military
  rulers
  to stop the execution.
  
  Among those at Saturday's rally was a spokesman for Saro-Wiwa's Movement
  for
  the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) who to loud cheers said all
  oil-producing communities should unite to get a better deal from the
  multinational companies.
  
  "In another 20 years there will be no more oil to exploit, so what will
  be
  the benefit for your people?" asked Patrick Naagbeaton.
  
  Shell pumps around half of Nigeria's over two million barrel per day oil
  production in a joint venture with state-run Nigerian National Petroleum
  Corporation.
  
  Other oil majors in Nigeria are Chevron, Mobil, Elf Aqutaine and Agip,
  but
  Shell is by far the most exposed producer onshore.
  
  
  
  
  
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