The Bitter Transmogrification of a Contamination Case: The Gbemre and the Lago Agrio Cases in View.

Image by Curt Merlo

May it be untrue, for the sake of all the Earth. But it is becoming increasingly difficult not to be persuaded to accept that corporations consider it a good thing to make profit at the cost of human lives and environmental damage and to scheme to abscond from responding to the dire consequences of their operations.

One must be persuaded as evidence abound in the gory sights of the many coal, oil and gas-infested sites across the world and in the unapologetic and hostile manner with which corporations, otherwise called ‘the polluters’, and their partners in pollution contest lawsuits demanding justice for ecological horrors. It is absurd.

Take, for example, the oily and burning situation in the Niger Delta, particularly in Iwherekhan community, Delta State, Nigeria. In the community, there are at least three (if my count is correct) fiery beasts (gas flares) belching the toxic fire on the environment and people despite a 2005 Federal High Court judgement in the “Gbemre Case”. The judgement, which was appealed by the polluter, marked the Nigerian courts’ first attempt at condemning gas flaring as a gross violation of the right to life, dignity and a healthy environment and ordered its cessation. See Gbemre v. Shell (suit no. FHC/B/CS/53/05, delivered on…