Nigerian unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc has agreed to pay about $110.9 million or N45.9 billion in compensation to the people of Ejama-Ebubu in Ogoni land, to resolve a long-running dispute over an oil spill that occurred more than 50 years ago.
Confirming the development, a spokesperson for Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), on Wednesday, said: “The order for the payment of N45.9billion to the claimants is for full and final satisfaction of the judgment in the suit, Chief Agbara and Others v. SPDC, in respect of the spills, which we maintain were caused by third parties during the Nigerian Civil War, a challenging period which resulted in significant damage to oil and gas infrastructure in the Niger Delta region.
“While the SPDC Joint Venture does not accept responsibility or liability for these spills, the affected sites in the Ebubu community were fully remediated. The payment ‘is for full and final satisfaction of a court judgment issued against the company 11 years ago.”
SPDCN’s lawyer, Aham Ejelamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has earlier told a Federal High Court in Abuja that his client has resolved to pay the money.
He urged the Court to direct that the money be paid through the Chief Registrar of the court in a bank account to be opened for the purpose, but it was later agreed that the money is paid to the affected communities through their lawyer.
The judge, Justice Ahmed Mohammed proceeded to make an order endorsing the payment by SDPC.
The communities’ lawyer, Lucius Nwosu, (SAN), was quoted as saying that Shell approached Court on Wednesday to make its intention known and has agreed to pay the sum within 21 days.
The community’s grievance against Shell dates back to a rupture in one of the firm’s pipelines in 1970.
In 2010, a Federal High Court had ordered Shell to pay N17 billion to the community, but the judgment was severally challenged by the oil major without success as well as that of the Supreme Court in November.
While the SPDC Joint Venture does not accept responsibility or liability for these spills, the affected sites in the Ebubu community were fully remediated. That the payment is for full and final satisfaction of a court judgment issued against the company 11 years ago.
In March last year, another judge had ruled that interest accruable, had increased the debt to about N183 billion by January 2019, a valuation the company vehemently contested.
In February this year, Shell had also initiated arbitration proceedings against the Nigerian Government at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes following its unsuccessful attempts to overturn the 2010 ruling.
The compensation was awarded as damages against SPDC in favor of the Ogoni communities on June 14, 2010, by Justice Ibrahim Buba (then of the Federal High Court, Lagos) in a suit by the representatives of the communities, led by Isaac Osaro Agbara and nine others.
The plaintiffs were said to have agreed to waive the interest on the principal judgment sum, as a concession agreed upon during talks leading to the final reconciliatory agreement.
