THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Nigerian Police Tear Gas Shell Office Demonstrators: “Nigerian police fired tear gas at a crowd of several hundred people protesting outside the offices of Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD, SC) in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta, activists said Wednesday.”: “Shell has denied any immediate plans to return to Ogoni territory. The oil giant was forced to abandon drilling there in the mid-1990s following violent protests led by MOSOP, which accused the company of cheating them out of oil royalties and polluting their land.” (ShellNews.net) 24 Nov 04
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
November 24, 2004 4:48 a.m.
LAGOS (AP)--Nigerian police fired tear gas at a crowd of several hundred people protesting outside the offices of Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD, SC) in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta, activists said Wednesday.
The demonstrators were from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, which is demanding that Nigerian security forces withdraw from ethnic Ogoni areas in the Niger Delta. The group says the security presence has increased markedly since August to protect oil installations and to prepare for an eventual return of Shell oil-drilling in the area.
Shell has denied any immediate plans to return to Ogoni territory. The oil giant was forced to abandon drilling there in the mid-1990s following violent protests led by MOSOP, which accused the company of cheating them out of oil royalties and polluting their land.
"I'm suffering seriously from tear gas, and so are several others," Bari Kpalap, spokesman for the group, said from the scene in the oil city of Port Harcourt.
Kpalap alleged security forces have been extorting money from locals, and have committed a number of rapes.
"We asked the company to withdraw security forces from the area and they refused," he said.
A police spokeswoman in Port Harcourt said she wasn't aware of the protest. Neither Shell nor the Nigerian military were available for comment.
A Western human rights activist at the protest estimated the number of demonstrators at 500.
Nigeria is the world's seventh-largest oil exporter, pumping around 2.5 million barrels of crude per day. Shell produces roughly half of that oil, mostly from the impoverished Niger Delta region.