Special to the NNPA from the GIN –
(GIN) – Activist Emem Okon of the Niger Delta was among 17 people representing oil-producing communities in Angola, Ecuador, Burma, the Philippines and around the world to be locked out of a shareholders meeting on May 30 by the oil giant Chevron.
Ms. Okon, who traveled to Houston, Texas, from Nigeria’s oil-rich Delta region, said she came to urge the company “to clean up the environment, end gas flaring, and to respect their human rights policies, which call for two-way communication between Chevron and the community people,” she said.
Police arrested five protestors with The True Cost of Chevron Network who had rallied to call attention to Chevron’s human rights and environmental record.
In a radio interview, Ms. Okon said: “I came to tell Chevron that they have oppressed in the Niger Delta region with impunity for the past fifty years, poisoning our waters, devastating our environment, killing the fish we eat, burning poison gas through gas flares that has caused cancer, asthma, corroding our roofs. And they have not done anything to alleviate the sufferings of the people as the result of their activities.”
“I am surprised at the attention that the BP oil spill has attracted in the United States,” she continued, “and I expect that the condition in the Niger Delta should attract the same coverage… Chevron (should) stop their inhuman activity and abuse of human rights in the Niger Delta region.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
