Leaking Justice: From oil spills in the Niger Delta to the High Court in London—A conversation with King Okpabi on the Shell Trial - video

For nearly a decade, the Ogale and Bille communities of Nigeria have been fighting for justice, seeking accountability from oil giant Shell for the devastating environmental pollution that has wrecked their land and livelihoods. Now, as the landmark trial began at the High Court in London—running from 13 February to 7 March 2025—the case could set a historic legal precedent: holding a UK multinational accountable for human rights violations due to environmental harms.

This event featured a discussion with King Okpabi, leader of the Ogale community, alongside an expert panel on environmental law and litigation. Together, they unpacked the significance of the case, its legal journey, and its potential impact on future lawsuits against corporate actors. The panel also discussed the patterns and path dependencies beyond fossil fuel extraction, drawing connections to critical mineral extraction for the so-called ‘green’ energy transition.

Panellists: 

• King Okpabi
• Zoe Johannes (Leigh Day)
• Mark Dummett (Amnesty International)
• Zainab Rahim (RAID)

Chair: Marie Petersmann (LSE Law School)

About the speakers:

King Bebe Okpabi, Oneh-Eh-Nchia X and Paramount Ruler of Ogale, has been – since the case was filed a decade ago – the lead community claimant in Ogale’s ongoing legal battle against Shell following the environmental devastation they have caused. He represents his community which, like many across the Niger Delta, have been blighted by Shell’s operations and the damage this has caused since they arrived in Nigeria around 70 years ago, during which time Shell have made billions of dollars in profits from Nigeria’s resources.

Zoe Johannes is an Associate Solicitor in the international department at Leigh Day, representing over 13,000 individuals in the Ogale and Bille communities who have suffered devastating oil pollution caused by Shell’s operations in the Niger Delta. She holds an MSc in Gender, Media and Culture from LSE and has worked in domestic and international human rights litigation at Leigh Day since 2018.

Mark Dummett is the head of the Business and Human Rights team at Amnesty International, which campaigns on behalf of communities affected by human rights abuses linked to the oil industry in the Niger Delta. He has been researching the causes and consequences of oil pollution there for the past decade. He has written several reports on the issue, including Negligence in the Niger Delta, which used Shell’s own records to show how the company was failing to respond appropriately to oil spills, and A Criminal Enterprise, which examined the company’s support for the Nigerian military as it cracked down on protestors in the Ogoniland region in the 1990s, resulting in the execution of writer and protest leader Ken Saro-Wiwa. Mark has also led human rights investigations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Bangladesh and India. He is a former BBC News Correspondent.

Zainab Rahim is a Media & Communications Manager at RAID, a corporate watchdog which holds companies to account for human rights and environmental harms. She completed an MA in Postcolonial Culture & Global Policy in 2021. Her dissertation was focused on the slow ecological violence and access to justice in the lead poisoning case in Kabwe, Zambia. RAID is currently investigating toxic pollution around DRC’s industrial copper-cobalt mines.

Marie Petersmann is Assistant Professor at LSE Law School. Her research focuses on legal strategies for ecological and climate justice in the Anthropocene. She holds a PhD in International Law from the European University Institute and an LLM from the Graduate Institute in International and Development Studies. She is the author of When Environmental Protection and Human Rights Collide: The Politics of Conflict Management by Regional Courts (CUP 2022).