The oil company Shell lied to a Dutch court about steps taken to minimize the risk of oil spills during a court case brought against the…company by four Nigerian farmers and Friends of the Earth, lawyers acting for the claimants alleged today…During the case,…Shell’s lawyer said that the oil company had taken precautionary steps to avoid oil spills…, including the installation of a leak detection system… However, according to lawyers representing the farmers, documents revealed in the UK’s High Court this year have shown that there was in fact no leak detection system in place and [Shell] had consistently ignored calls from its own staff to replace the pipeline…A spokesman for the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC) said: “We strongly refute any suggestion that SPDC has knowingly submitted false or misleading information to the Dutch court…”