Bodo Fishing community in Port Harcourt, Nigeria has rejected compensation offers made yesterday by Shell for damages done to their livelihoods by oil spills from pipelines operated by the company.
 
Lawyer to the community said they will go back to British Court to request a trial timetable.

Reacting to this, a spokesperson for Shell’s Nigeria Unit said, "We haven't reached agreement on compensation, which is disappointing. Nonetheless, we're pleased to have made progress in relation to cleanup," he added, saying measures had been put in place to get remediation work done as soon as possible.

The company had promised $46.3 million to compensate the people of the community over the degradation of the environment by oil spill from the company’s pipelines.

Leigh Day, the British law firm representing the villagers, said the compensation offer amounted to approximately 1,100 pounds ($1,700) per individual impacted, without giving the number of people it says were affected.
 
"The whole week has been deeply disappointing. The settlement figures are totally derisory and insulting to these villagers," he added.
  
The Nigerians launched a suit against Shell at the High Court in London in March 2012, seeking millions of dollars in compensation for two oil spills in 2008, but both sides agreed to try and settle in compensation talks in Port Harcourt.
 
Shell accepts responsibility for the Bodo spills but the two sides disagree about the volume spilt and the number of local people who lost their livelihoods as a result.
 
The Niger Delta has for years been plagued by a range of problems including environmental degradation, kidnappings, theft of crude from pipelines, armed rebellions, and conflict between communities over clean-up contracts or compensation deals.