Most important source of Nigeria's foreign exchange is crude oil, there have been increased activities in the oil sector in the area of exploitation refining export and domestic distribution. Though Nigeria has benefit immensely and it has also generated finance for the country, it has also created serious health and environmental problems with increase in oil activities and results in unfortunate consequences.

It becomes clear that the law's remedies were not easily available to the victims of the pollution, this worked injustice on the victims. Further there was no comprehensive national policy and environmental statute for the country's environmental protection. It took the 1988 Koko toxic waste dung for the country to fashion out a national policy in the environment with supporting statutory legislations.

However, even with the statutory legislation in place, the problem of the victims were far from others. These victims hardly get any justice from the count, this is because of the many implementation that comes with environmental litigation. The most troublesome being the doctrine of Locus standi - it is the common law doctrine that has found its way into our legal system, Locus standi is the existence of a right of an individual or group of individuals to bring action before a court of law for ad jurisdiction.