As a fallout of the judicial victory for Bodo fishermen and community of Rivers State, each of the 15, 500 fishermen would smile home with N600, 000 each.
The people of the community were recently awarded a compensation by a UK Court for the ecological disaster in their areas to the tune of N16 billion to be paid them by oil giants, Shell. Although, protests had trailed the Court’s verdict that the monetary compensation was meager compared to the degradation and loss to the community and the people of the area by the activities of the oil giants.
Renowned environmentalist and the Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Nnimmo Bassey, disclosed the sharing formular to our correspondent in a telephone chat.
According to Bassey, each of the 15,600 plaintiffs in the litigation that led to the award of the compensation would be entitled to N600,000 while the balance of the sum would go for community projects like school blocks and health centres.
In the words of Bassey, “We welcome the agreement by Shell to pay a penalty of about 55 million Pounds Sterling (about N16bn) to 15, 600 Bodo fishermen and community for the massive crude oil spills of 2008/2009.
It is a welcome news for a new year loaded with violence and other unpalatable news. We congratulate the Bodo people and all who worked on this case. Bassey also said that the compensation was fairer than the initial amount being proposed by Shell as compensation.
The environmentalist, however, lamented that the compensation to each of the fishermen could hardly afford them the purchase of a good new fishing boat and equipment needed to resume their fishing works, he maintained that it was worth the trouble at the end of the day.