Sample letter:
Protest against obscene reward for Shell’s environmental crimes!!!

We, the undersigned organisations and individuals from around the world,
wish to express our total disappointment and shock at your choice of
company - Shell whose environmental track record in Ogoniland and the Niger Delta of Nigeria is below average to say the least. We share the concerns of the  Ogoni people who have called for the immediate disqualification of Shell from this award. This is because an environmental award to Shell undermines the struggles and demands for a healthy environment by the Ogonis as well as exonerates and endorses the company's atrocities in the community since 1958.

We understand that WEC is an independent organisation which has been funded by the United Nations Environment programme to advance sustainable development and social responsibility, encouraging environmental leadership
and help improve environmental health and safety practice world-wide.
Going by this criteria, giving this award to Shell confirms your organisation's
refusal to abide by its stated terms of reference thereby encouraging the
destruction of the natural environment of the Ogonis and Niger Delta
people whose land is continuously being savaged by Shell in Nigeria.

Shell's activities in Ogoni led to the community's crisis of 1993 - 1996, which resulted to the killing of over 3,000 people including women and children. Other human rights violations that ensued included raping of thousands of teenage girls, young women and grandmothers, the sacking of 30 Ogoni villages and the maiming of youths etc. These human rights violations was climaxed with the hanging of human & environmental rights activist Ken Saro Wiwa and 8 other Ogonis on November 10, 1995 which caused international outrage on Nigeria and mass boycott of Shell's product across the world.  The human and material cost of this crisis on the Ogoni people cannot be quantified in monetary terms. Yet Shell's reckless oil exploration activities remain unchanged in the Niger Delta. Shell's poisonous gas flares still pollute Ogoniland 24 hours daily since 1958, causing terminal lung and chest illnesses; surface pipelines still criss-cross the lands, causing explosions from overheating; oil spills and fires continue to destroy lands, streams and rivers. Shell still refuses to implement proper cleanup activities on the land or offer compensatio to the landowners etc.

See below Shell's most recent disasters in the Niger Delta of Nigeria.

RECENT HISTORY ON SHELL'S ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTERS IN NIGER DELTA:
  1. "Pipeline explosion rocks Delta Community. This pipeline belonging to
  SPDC exploded in Warri. Spilling about a million barrells of oil in the
  area" - Daily Times of Nigeria 9th January 2001
  2. "Shell's oil spill claims 28 lives including women & children in Akassa
  Local Government. More than 200 villages were affected - Post Express 5th
  January 2001
  3. "Fire guts Shell's 'well 18' in Ugheli Nigeria." - Nigerian Guardian 13th December 2000.
  4. "Ikarama oil spill spreads to Ahoada, the spill has polluted the
people's source of drinking water" - Nigerian Observer 5th November 2000
  5. "Shell's oil spill occurs at well 32 (Ekulama) covering river and destroying aquatic lives. Ekulama women protest against Shell over shooting of youths" - Environmental Rights Action Nigeria. 10th August 2000
  6. "Unending crude oil pollution. Shell immerses Biseni community in Crude
  oil and refuses to clean spill" - Environmental Rights Action Nigeria 15th July 2000
  7. "Shell, blood stains from Evwreni" - Environmental Rights Action Nigeria
  22nd February 2000
  8. "Shell instigated attacks on Elelewon" - Evironmental Rights Action Nigeria 31st January 2000
  9. "Shell spill in Eregbesene" - Environmental Rights Action Nigeria 27th January 2000
  10. "43 years on, Oloibiri is a study in neglect - the road to Oloibiri, the first oil well at Oloibiri, view of the No. 2 location of Shell at Oloibiri in 1956" - Nigerian Guardian 25th December 1999.
  11. "6 Years after abandonement, Shell facilities spew oil in Bodo" - ERA 27th December 1999
  12. "Shell in Bille; unending spills and crisis" - ERA 24th November 1999
  13. "Shell fails to clean spills, refuses to pay compensation in Amuse Oyigbo" - ERA 22nd Nov. 1999
  14. "Shell's well in Ogoni area goes aflame. A dormant oil well belonging to Shell burst into flames in Yorla oil field" - Nigerian Guardian 27th July 1999
  15. By 1993, Ogoni could point to 3,000 oil spills from high-pressured oil lines laid over their farmlands.
  16. Shell has been summoned to the Human Rights Commission sitting in Port Harcourt - Nigeria on 16th January 2001. This is in relation to the corroboratory role it played with the Nigerian dictator by sponsoring the Nigerian army with amunitions and financial assistance, which was used to kill, unarmed Ogonis in order to deter them from protesting against its activities. Shell is also expected to answer to its role in the hanging of Environmental /Human Rights Activist Ken Saro Wiwa and the 8 other Ogonis hanged by the draconian regime of Sani Abacha. - Comet News 16th January 2001
  17. "Shell fights compensation order of $40m" - British Broadcasting Corporation News 26th June 2000. Shell still refuses to pay oil spill compensation court order to the Ebubu Ejaama people of Ogoni for 1970 spill, which devastated the area.

Judging from above, it is obvious that Shell's presence in the Niger Delta of Nigeria does not reflect the environmentally friendly organisation that it portrays to the International community. The true story of Shell in Nigeria is that of an organisation that ignores social responsibility, sustainable development, and exhibits great disdain for environmental health and safety.

Finally, the award you contemplate suggest that you are rewarding Shell for its cruel disregard for the environmental and human rights of the Ogoni people in particular and the people of the Niger Delta in general. This contemptuous award defies the memory of Ken Saro Wiwa and thousands of Ogonis who have laid down their lives in protest of Shell's corporate cruelty and irresponsibility.

We are by this petition demanding that you immediately disqualify Shell from this award until it changes it attitude towards the environmental and human rights disasters in Ogoni and the Niger Delta.

Yours truly,

Signed by:
(Organisations and Individuals around the World)

  cc
  Isaac Skelton
  Sir Mark Moody Stuart - President & Managing Director - Shell
  Shell Offices
  The United Nations
  The President of Nigeria