Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
I am Akpobari Celestine
I am the national coordinator of the Ogoni Solidarity Forum
I work for Social Action
I'm in London, I traveled all the way from Ogoni
to attend the briefing by
Mr Peter Voser CEO of Shell to shareholders today
I want to extend an invitation to Mr Peter Voser
to come for his retirement party in the Niger Delta
where his company have made so much money
The Ogoni people are targeting Shell because Shell is the company
that has sentenced the Ogoni environment to death
A few years ago Shell and the Nigerian Government hired UNEP
to conduct an environmental audit in Ogoni
the report says that the water that the Ogoni people take
is polluted 900 times above levels recommended by Nigerian standards
So you now begin to see people with skin diseases which are strange
You now see women beginning to give birth to disabled children
Things that are alien to us
It will take 35 years to clean up Ogoni and Shell is yet to do anything
So I'm here to let them know that the mess is still there in Ogoni to be cleaned up
So as you can see we are at the venue for today's meeting between
Mr Peter Voser CEO of Shell and the shareholders
And the company PRO (Public Relations Officer) has just come
to receive a formal invitation letter from us to Mr Voser
to visit the Niger Delta for his party
In my discussion with him, he accepted that we have failed in the Niger Delta
And that everytime I fly through the Niger Delta I see the devastation
and I imagine how people live their lives
But we are committed to cleaning up
I can assure you that we will take action from this moment
and I told him we have heard that before
I said we need action and not talk
Shell has done nothing. And this is one of the most important reasons why I'm here
To see if we can push them further to start the clean up
So we can begin to fish again
So that we can begin to farm again
So that we can begin to have a family again
So that we can begin to think about a brighter future again