By Bisi Olaniyi, Port Harcourt
Justice Gladys Olotu of a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, yesterday ordered the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) to pay N4 billion as general damages to some communities in Imo State, for crude oil spillage.
The spill occurred on April 29, 1997.
Before filing the suit, a N900 million ex-gratia was made by Shell to the communities, for which they signed an undertaking that the full and final settlement for the oil spill had been made.
The affected communities are Umudike, Alimiri Umudike, Ekpe Agah, Ukpazizi Ekpe Mbede and Etekuru.
Shell’s pipeline ruptured along the Egbema-Assa delivery line, destroying the areas’ streams, swamps and forest, causing pollution and environmental degradation.
The communities, led by Sylvester Onyema Esiegwu and 11 others, through their counsel, Lucius Nwosu (SAN),filed the suit, demanding N5,408,000.000 as special damages, as assessed by their chartered valuation surveyors.
Justice Olotu said the course of justice would not be served, if she had to agree with Shell, based on the document corroborating the earlier agreement.
She reiterated that ex-gratia means favour and not right, stressing that the agreement with the communities could not stop their rights to claim adequate compensation.
The judge noted that the N4 billion would be for the indirect economic losses and negative environmental impact the communities had suffered, including loss of objects of reverence, totems, historical landmarks, air quality and associated fear and forced refugee status.
Experts’ report showed that the spillage was as a result of external corrosion on the pipeline, buried seven metres deep, but in the course of the trial, Shell alleged that the spill was caused by sabotage.
via The Nation
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