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Petroleum is an important commodity. It is required everywhere in the world. It makes life easy. It powers all those human devices that enhance the comfort of man. But it can also be a big source of disaster, poverty and conflict.

In the Niger Delta where all the country’s petroleum are produced, the story is very much the same. Oil has been a huge source of wealth for Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, but the owners of the Niger Delta land that habours the precious products have remained neglected and poor.

In that region, Shell is regarded as the source of all the problems of the people. Not only is the environment subjected to the worst form of degradation, there is no commitment on the part of Shell that is responsible for most of that damage and other companies involved in the exploration of petroleum in the area, for any reasonable form of remediation.

These facts have been part of the finding of several groups that have examined the people’s agitation for some form of remediation for their exploited and neglected lands. The latest of such reports which was done and released recently to the public by Platform, a London- based NGO also came to the same conclusions and identified Shell as the chief culprit. But Platform did not stop at the neglect, it took the probing further and also found that Shell is behind most of the human rights violations committed against the people of the Niger Delta. It also said the oil giant funds a lot of the crises involving criminal gangs in the region and gave instances when money from Shell actually passed to such groups.

Our cover story this week is essentially based on this report. It chronicles the criminal side of  Shell’s operations in the Niger Delta. The story which we have called – How Shell Funds Criminal Gangs in Niger Delta – was written by Maureen Chigbo, general editor