The king of Ogali, a region in Nigeria, has taken the oil giant Shell to court in London in a bid to force it to clear up what he alleges is land contamination from oil spillages.
The case, which will be heard over three days, will see solicitors representing King Emere Godwin Bebe Okpabi and his local community argue that their claim that the company has a duty to clear up land contamination from what the king says are "failures of equipment" should be heard in the UK courts. Shell disputes this.
Okpabi spoke to BuzzFeed News during the first day of the jurisdictional hearing at London's high court. He said he had brought the case to the UK because the community would be unable to get "justice" in a Nigerian court, due to what he described as a close relationship between the government and oil companies.
Royal Dutch Shell, which is registered in the UK, has a responsibility to clear up contaminated land resulting from oil spillages, he said.
The company has argued that any legal argument should be heard in Nigeria because Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), its Nigerian subsidiary, is based in the country. It is the operator of a joint venture in the country with other stakeholders, including a government-owned firm.
Shell added that it had not produced oil or gas in the region since 1993 and argued any contaminations from oil spills were the result of "crude oil theft, pipeline sabotage and illegal refining which remain the main sources of pollution across the Niger Delta".
However, Leigh Day, the firm representing Okpabi, said the pipelines and infrastructure were "several decades old" and were therefore in a poor state of repair, making the area vulnerable to oil spills "which have caused, and continue to cause, long-term contamination of the land, swamps, groundwater and waterways in the community".
"Irrespective of what caused them we say Shell should clean up," Leigh Day's Matthew Renshaw said. "Those spills are still potentially contaminating land and drinking water."
Okpabi, who brought a bottle of water from a borehole in Ogale to court to show how strongly it smells of petroleum, claimed streams in the area were contaminated with chemicals.
"I am here to tell the story of my people, and the damage that Shell has done to my community – to the water, the soil, and the environment of Ogale," he said.
"We are farmers and fisherman. I got this water from Ogale, that's what the people are drinking now. We go to soak our cassava there, we fish in that stream, we wash our vegetables there," he added, showing the bottle to BuzzFeed News.
"We lived [here] long before they brought the chemicals."
Okpabi said contamination had caused illnesses among the population, and said he had "absolute confidence" in the British legal system, calling on it to "come to our aid".
There is an irony here, he said: "In 1887 the British crown signed a trade treaty with the people of Ogalle and the people supported the British then. I have come back to them now to say we worked with you then, and now a company registered in your country is killing us. Come to our aid."
A spokesperson for Shell said: "Access to the area has been limited following a rise in violence, threats to staff and attacks on facilities.
"The community’s lawyers argue that not only does SPDC owe a duty of care to Nigerian communities impacted by such criminal activity, but furthermore, Royal Dutch Shell – an Anglo-Dutch domiciled holding company without any employees – owes a similar direct duty of care to prevent oil spilled as a result of intentional third-party interference from damaging Niger Delta communities.
"The communities have chosen to bring these claims in the UK instead of in Nigeria, whose laws govern our operations. We are contesting the jurisdiction of the English court over these claims.
"We believe that allegations concerning Nigerian plaintiffs in dispute with a Nigerian company, over issues which took place in Nigeria, should be heard in Nigeria."
The court hearing is due to close on Thursday.