Amnesty International has warned the federal government to ensure that the divestment by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) does not worsen human rights abuses in the Niger Delta region.
The international rights organisation lamented that, already, the operations of the Dutch oil firm in the region have caused a high level of environmental degradation.
The organisation pointed out that Shell’s divestment without cleaning up the environment would further deteriorate human rights in the region, which, it said, has suffered decades of oil pollution.
Amnesty International’s Head of Business and Human Rights, Mark Dummett, stated this in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on Thursday while presenting a report titled “Tainted Sale? Why Shell’s Divestment from the Niger Delta Must Not Harm Human Rights.”
