11 YEARS AFTER JUDGMENT, SHELL AGREES TO PAY OGONI PEOPLE N45BN COMPENSATION
By: Emmanuel Adefeso Esq.
The people of Ogoni in Rivers State got justice as the multinational oil company, Shell Petroleum Company, agreed to pay N45.9 billion for the losses suffered as a result of oil spills that ravaged their communities.
The matter began in 2001 when ten representatives of the Ogoni people instituted the suit against the oil company for the losses allegedly caused by the oil spills. Hon. Justice Ibrahim Buba, then of Port Harcourt division of the Federal High Court, in June 2010 gave judgment in favour of the Ogoni people awarding N17 billion as compensation. The court equally granted the Ogoni chiefs a 25-percent interest charge on the principal sum of about N17 billion. SPDC appealed against the judgment up to the Supreme Court but it lost. In 2020, the company had also approached the apex court seeking a review of the judgment debt. But while delivering a ruling in November 2020, the five-member panel, led by Olabode Rhodes- Vivour, a former justice of the Supreme Court, unanimously dismissed Shell’s application, saying it lacked merit. Lucius Nwosu, lead counsel to the Ogoni communities had noted that the judgment sum, with the accrued interests, stood at about N182 billion.
At the resumed court session on Wednesday, Ejelamo sought the court’s permission to pay the debt through the chief registrar of the court in a bank account to be opened for the purpose. However, it was eventually agreed that the amount be paid to the aggrieved people through their lawyer. At last, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has agreed to pay N45.9 billion awarded to the Ogoni people of Rivers State as compensation for oil spills in their communities.
Since the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantity in Oloibiri community in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State in 1956 and its subsequent extraction in 1958, complaints and struggle of host communities in the region have largely hinged on environmental pollution, occasioned by oil spills and gas flaring. These host communities have battled multinational oil companies operating in their areas for compensation and cleanup, a situation that led to many legal battles. The recent judgment by the Court is a victory not only for the Ogoni people but for the global community in environmental conservation and preservation. The judgment will send a strong message to multinationals globally that the era of impunity in corporate practices that have concomitant negative effects on the environment, is over. This judgment introduces a new legal regime in the jurisprudence of compensation and damages to victims of oil pollution. It is hoped that this new trend would be sustained by courts in ongoing and future cases.
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