Hundreds of people signed a petition outside Dunnes Stores in the St Stephen's Green shopping centre in Dublin, yesterday requesting the company, in the light of its arrangement with Shell on accumulating loyalty points, to investigate Shell's operations in the Ogoni region of Nigeria.
Ogoni Solidarity Ireland, which organised the petition, said Shell's current advertising campaign emphasised the purity of its product and its respect for the environment. However the group says this is not borne out by its extraction activities in Ogoni. "Shell have destroyed much of the land they use through negligence and inadequate and faulty equipment. The ecosystem of the Ogoni area is on the brink of disaster because of environmental destruction."
The group also points to widespread human rights violations by successive Nigerian military regimes in Ogoni.
Ogoni Solidarity Ireland is at PO Box 6089, Dublin 1.