In July and August 2016 FSS provided an investigation team to a Client operating in a west African oil producing nation facing a class action lawsuit related to oil pollution. The FSS Client wanted to build a case to refute claims the riverline, water table and land contamination which had resulted in severe depletion of fish stocks and contamination of farmland, drinking and well water was result of illegal ‘bunkering,’ and pipeline siphoning by locals and sabotage and not poor production and pollution control.
The team spent 2 months working in local communities, taking samples, interviewing those affected and creating a complete case file with proven chain of exhibit custody. The investigation had to take account of and work around an ongoing insurgency by armed militias with a history of kidnap, murder and genocide.
