Supreme Court on Friday, January 11, 2019, dismissed an appeal filed by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) trying to stop a judgment debt to an Ogoni community and awarded N500,000 against the oil firm for allegedly filing an incompetent appeal.
Shell on Sunday, January 13, 2019, however, kicked out, denying any liability in the matter and said it was rather ready to go ahead with the appeal. Lawyers for the respondents however said there was no appeal anymore at the apex court based on the Friday verdict.
The position of Shell brings another twist in the windy case that began in an Eleme High Court at a mere N6 billion only to grow to a Federal High Court case at N17 billion. In each case, Shell lost to the community people over oil spills in Ejama Ebubu in 1971.
Experts say two major issues tick out in the deepening case; is there still an appeal before the Supreme Court, and is Shell owing N17 billion as it claims or N134 billion as the Ebubu community claims to be the case in the Supreme Court?
A Shell spokesperson said on Sunday, “SPDC is aware of the Supreme Court’s order on our notice of appeal. We are seeking to obtain a copy of this and will respond appropriately once we have reviewed the detail. SPDC denies any liability in this matter and we remain ready to defend this case based on the available facts.”
On what the ruling means for the substantive case and whether SPDC now needs to pay the N17 billion original sum in the 2010 judgment, Shell said: “We are yet to obtain a copy of the ruling to ascertain the basis of the conclusion of the court to enable us respond appropriately.”
Shell did not mention that the First Bank guarantee in the judgment of N17 billion also included the 25 percent interest awarded to the community people on the principal.
The Supreme Court had on Friday dismissed the appeal filed by SPDC, which prevented First Bank of Nigeria Limited from paying the plaintiffs community a judgment debt said to now total N134 billion to the plaintiff community represented by 10 Ogoni chiefs of Ejama Ebubu community of Ogoni in Rivers State.
In a ruling on Friday, the justice, Kumai Bayang Akaahs, said the notice of appeal filed by the oil firm was incompetent and struck it out based on Order 8 Rule 7 of the court’s rules. Akaahs also said motion filed by Shell on July 16, 2018 had no leg to stand on as it ought not to have been filed.
The suit began in 1991 before a Rivers State High Court sitting at Nchia Division in Eleme for spills in 1970 and the chief won the N6Bn it asked for. The case was later refilled for N17 billion at the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt in 2001, when it was declared that state high courts had no jurisdiction over oil related matters. The chiefs won again with 25 percent interest per year on the N17 billion.
SPDC then appealed against the judgment and applied for a stay of execution of the judgment pending the appeal. As a condition for granting the stay of execution, the court required Shell’s bankers, FirstBank, to provide a guarantee of the judgment sum plus interest, according to media reports.
Lawyers now argue that since Shell’s appeal has been rejected by the apex court, the interest stands, but SPDC says it is rather ready to continue with its appeal since its request to file amendments to the appeal have been rejected.
More legal fireworks may lie ahead as it may not be easy to pick up N134 billion.
