Directs FG to pay Bayelsa $951m derivation arrears
Alex Enumah in Abuja
Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court yesterday ordered oil giant, Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited and its Joint venture partner, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to pay the total sum of N81.9 billion as damages to Ibeno communities in Akwa Ibom State over oil pollution.
In a similar judgment, Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, also yesterday ordered the federal government to pay the Bayelsa State Government a total of $951million being the 13 per cent derivation sum due as arrears of revenue and payable to the state.
The N82 billion, according to the judgment must be paid within 14 days, after which eight per cent interest will be accruable on the principal sum annually.
The Akwa Ibom communities led by Obong Effiong Archianga and nine others had in April 2012 dragged the NNPC, Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited and ExxonMobil Corporation to court over oil spillages in their communities between 2000 and 2010.
The oil spillages, the plaintiffs had claimed badly affected their environment as well as destroyed their means of livelihood which was mainly fishing and farming.
Delivering judgment in the matter, Justice Taiwo held that the American oil company and NNPC were negligent in the way and manner they handled oil spills that caused environmental degradation in the communities.
He particularly took swipe at the NNPC for being interested in the revenue generations from oil exploration at the expense of the lives of the people of the communities.
The judge held that the oral and documentary evidence adduced by the plaintiffs supported their claims that lives were made miserable for them when their waters and land were polluted through crude oil leakages from old oil pipelines belonging to the defendants.
The judge described as unreliable the witnesses called by Mobil, adding that for no reason they became evasive during cross examination by counsel to the plaintiffs.
The court further held that both Mobil and NNPC were negligent when they failed to visit farmlands, rivers and creeks said to have been contaminated by the oil leakages from their pipelines.
Justice Taiwo also rejected the claims of the NNPC that the suit was statute-barred in 2012 when it was filed by the aggrieved plaintiffs.
The judge consequently awarded the sum of N42.8 billion as damages for intangible losses, N29.1 billion special damages as annotated and N10 billion as general damages.
However, the third defendant, ExxonMobil Corporation was removed from the court action when the court established that there was no cause of action against it
In a related development, the federal government has been ordered to pay the Bayelsa State Government a total of $951million being the 13 per cent derivation sum due as arrears of revenue and payable to the state.
Justice Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja gave the order yesterday in a judgment on a suit, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/175/2021 filed in the name of the Attorney General of Bayelsa State.
Bayelsa had, in the suit, urged the court to compel the Attorney General of the Federation (listed as the sole defendant) to pay five per cent of the $50billion recovered as additional revenue that accrued to the FG between 2003 and 2007.
Justice Ekwo, in the judgment, found that the Attorney General of the Federation, failed to enter his defence in the suit, and held that the plaintiff’s suit was “unchallenged.”
He added: “Where a person issues a letter of demand on another person upon outstanding facts, the person for whom the demand notice was issued must take steps to react to same.
“Where the person to whom such demand notice is issued takes no steps, he is deemed to have admitted the claims thereby giving the other person the option of enforcing the claims by the available procedures for enforcement of undisputed claims. That is what has happened in this case.”
The judge noted that the AGF had admitted the claims of the plaintiff in the defendant’s reaction to the suit.
“I find no material upon which I can grant leave of this court for the defendant to enter a defence or transfer this matter to the general cause list.
“In that case, I also find that the case of the plaintiff remains not only challenged but admitted and therefore must succeed on the merit.
“Judgment is hereby entered on the claims of the plaintiff in this case. This is the order of this court,” the judge said.
Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, and Rivers States had sued the AGF at the Supreme Court, to request for an upward adjustment of the shares of revenues accruing to the FG whenever the price of crude oil exceeds $20 per barrel.
They prayed the Supreme Court for interpretation of Section 16(1) of the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract Act in suit number SC964/2016 filed on their behalf by their lead Counsel, Lucius Nwosu, (SAN).
The provision requires the FG to adjust the shares of the revenue accruable to the federation, whenever the price of crude oil exceeds $20 per barrel.
The Supreme Court, in its judgment on October 2018, ordered the FG to embark on an upward adjustment of the shares of revenues accruing to the government whenever the price of crude oil exceeds $20 per barrel.
The Bayelsa government’s suit was meant to further enforce the Supreme Court’s decision.
