Massive Oil Spill inNiger Delta

I apologize to all the Nigerians as I have neglected this issue especially since the BP disaster. Of course, there are the other oil companies dumping millions of barrels of oil into the Niger Delta destroying the livlihoods of millions of people. I apologize for neglecting this issue further. Thank you CommonDreams for bringing it to my attention.

Here are some excerpts from the article by John Vidal:

"On 1 May this year a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline in the state of Akwa Ibom spilled more than a million gallons into the delta over seven days before the leak was stopped. Local people demonstrated against the company but say they were attacked by security guards."

And this:

"One report, compiled by WWF UK, the World Conservation Union and representatives from the Nigerian federal government and the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, calculated in 2006 that up to 1.5m tons of oil – 50 times the pollution unleashed in the Exxon Valdez tanker disaster in Alaska – has been spilled in the delta over the past half century. Last year Amnesty calculated that the equivalent of at least 9m barrels of oil was spilled and accused the oil companies of a human rights outrage.

"According to Nigerian federal government figures, there were more than 7,000 spills between 1970 and 2000, and there are 2,000 official major spillages sites, many going back decades, with thousands of smaller ones still waiting to be cleared up. More than 1,000 spill cases have been filed against Shell alone."