â¢Spillage caused by sabotage, oil firm insists
Festus Akanbi
Judgement came in favour of four Nigerian farmers yesterday when an appeal court in the Netherlands ruled that the Nigerian subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell was responsible for oil pipeline leaks in three communities in the Niger Delta and ordered it to pay unspecified damages to the farmers.
The court said the amount of damages would be determined later and did not specify how many of the four farmers would receive compensation.
After 13 years of legal wrangling, the appeal court in The Hague ruled: âShell Nigeria is sentenced to compensate farmers for damages.â