Chevron paid Nigerian soldiers who guarded the company’s oil rigs after they allegedly attacked two villages in the African nation, according to company documents that have surfaced during a lawsuit against the energy firm.
The invoice from a Nigerian navy captain asks San Ramon-based Chevron to pay 15 000 naira, about $165, to 23 soldiers who responded to ”attacks from Opia village against security agents”.
The company paid within 24 hours, according to a copy of the reciept which bears a date and time stamp.
Residents of Opia and Ikenyan villages in the Nigeria’s oil-rich delta have sued Chevron in federal court in San Francisco to hold the company responsible for the fatal attacks in January 1999 that left homes destroyed and at least four people dead. The company has denied any responsibility for the deaths or injuries.
Lawyers for the villagers say the invoice shows that Chevron knew about the attacks and should therefore be held accountable.
Chevron acknowledges it made the payment, but says it regularly paid soldiers to guard its facilities in a region known for violence and ethnic conflict, said spokesperson Charles Stewart.
”They’re a per-diem fee that you pay the military for the general protection of the rigs and facilities and assets,” Stewart said. ”It’s not about going to villages and killing people.”
Stewart said he wasn’t sure if Chevron had heard about the attacks before the payments were made and suggested that another ethnic group might have attacked the villages, if the attacks alleged in the lawsuit occurred at all.
”To the extent that there were any attacks — because there’s a lot of disagreement on this — no Chevron Nigeria personnel were present or authorised any such attack,” Stewart said.
In the 1950s, residents of the Niger Delta hoped oil exploration would lead to broad-based economic growth, but the boom never arrived, leaving the region in poverty despite its rich petroleum resources and leading to protests demanding economic justice. – Sapa-AP