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Court orders Shell to pay N45.7bn fine to end oil spill case in Nigeria

*Justice Ahmed Mohammed of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, FCT, orders the country’s unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc to pay the money within 21 days

*Shell Petroleum Company insists it was not responsible for the environmental damage in Ogoniland, in Niger Delta region of the country

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

The Nigerian Unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc has agreed to pay a community over $110million compensation to resolve a long-running dispute over an oil spill that occurred in the South-South region of the West African country more than 50 years ago.

ConsumerConnect gathered Mr. Lucius Nwosu, the affected community’s lawyer, disclosed that the Anglo-Dutch energy giant would pay the Ejama-Ebubu people N45.7 billion ($110.9 million) compensation towards ending a legal case that began in 1991.

Nigerian court judgement symbol   Photo: GlassLewis

Shell had approached a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, FCT, Wednesday, August 11, 2021, to disclose its readiness to pay the judgement sum to the people of Ogoni in Rivers State.

Justice Ahmed Mohammed, the presiding Judge who gave the order Wednesday ordered the money must be paid within 21 days.

The sum is a cost awarded against the company several years ago for oil spillage in Ogoniland.

Aham Ejelamo, Counsel to Shell Petroleum Company, in his submission informed the court that his client had agreed to make the payment, report stated.

The firm’s counsel also had proposed that the money be paid through the Registrar of the court into a bank account about to be opened for the purpose.

However, Justice Mohammed ruled against the request and ordered that the payment be made within the period given through the account of the lawyer (Nwosu’s) to the Ogoni people.

According to the presiding Judge, the order is in line with the decision of both the High Court and the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

The Ogoni people in Niger Delta region

Ogoniland, located in the South-East Senatorial District of Rivers State in the Niger Delta region, has its people sharing common oil-related environmental problems with the Ijaw people in the same region of the country.

The affected people have been victims of oil spillage for over 30 years, according to report.

Their plights caught international attention, following a massive public protest campaign against Shell Petroleum Company, led by the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), a body that is a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO).

A Lagos Division of the Federal High Court presided by Justice Ibrahim Buba awarded the cost against Shell Petroleum Company in a judgement delivered June 14, 2010, for the sufferings inflicted on the people of Ogoniland, report said.

After several years of legal tussle, the Supreme Court upheld the judgement of the lower court, but Shell Petroleum Company was not satisfied as it sought for some considerations in this regard.

Eventually, when the matter came up Wednesday, Justice Mohammed while upholding the judgement explained that it would amount to burying the judgement of the Supreme Court to rule otherwise in the case.

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