‘Nigerian monarch takes on oil giant in search of environmental justice’ 21 October 2025

Now Dakolo, the monarch of Ekpetiama, a kingdom in the southern coastal state of Bayelsa, a custodian of peace and tradition and a former soldier, has risen to be one of the country's prominent environmental crusaders. When Shell announced earlier this year it was divesting its onshore assets without first addressing decades-long oil pollution, he decided silence was not an option for a royal. He sued one of the world's oil giants to force it to clean up and restore the environmental health of his kingdom. Farming and fishing communities in the Niger Delta, the heartland of Nigeria's crude production, have borne the brunt of pollution.

…"We have international-level reports showing that they are culpable, there are other documents showing that they are culpable. And then of course, I have a lot of evidence in my mouth that they are culpable. And I'm going to say it," Dakolo told AFP in an interview in Nigeria's commercial hub of Lagos. He recalls walking to school "on naked petroleum pipelines" that criss-cross his kingdom of 1.5 million people to avoid walking along busy tarred main roads. As kids they also played, climbing the pipelines, pretending to be acrobats, he wrote in his autobiography.

…Oil companies generally say they operate according to the sector's environmental best practices and blame most spills on sabotage and oil thieves tapping into pipelines. But Dakolo's suit against Shell is due for pre-trial hearing on Wednesday. It seeks to halt the transfer of Shell assets to a Nigerian company, Renaissance, pending an agreement to fund environmental cleanup, decommissioning of obsolete infrastructure and community compensation. "They must come and restore the environment to its pristine tranquility. They have to. You cannot just come and destroy the place, make all the money, and leave us empty. No! "Let's have back our environment."…Shell told AFP that Renaissaince is handling the litigation. AFP did not get a response to its query from Renaissance. But Dakolo, who insists he is suing Shell, said, according to his lawyers, Shell is expected to raise preliminary objections during the sitting on Wednesday.