Nigeria: The message Chevron silenced from its shareholders

From May 24 to May 28, JINN traveled to Houston for a week of events anchored by Chevron's Annual General Meeting and filled with activities with the True Cost of Chevron coalition.

In an act symbolic of the way Chevron treats local communities, Chevron illegally barred JINN’s three-person delegation from entering the the company's Annual General meeting in Houston. At this time, we are exploring our legal options and will keep you updated on actions to ensure that community voices can be heard by the Board and shareholders in the future.

Emem Okon brought this message from the women she works with in Nigeria:

“For fifty years Chevron has operated with impunity in the Niger Delta---poisoning our water which is the only water most of our communities have to drink, killing the fish we eat and burning poison fires by flaring gas 24 hours a day, 365 days a year....For the past 50 years, Chevron and other oil companies in the Delta are responsible for oil spills the equivalent of an Exxon Valdez every year. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation estimates 300 spills—a total of 650,000 gallons of oil—each year in the Niger Delta; World Bank figures indicate the situation is actually worse. We are surprised to see all the attention that the BP spill is attracting and we wish the media and oil companies would make the same effort to cover and stop oil spills in Nigeria where most future expansion plans call for deepwater drilling.”