The Supreme Court is reported to have affirmed Rivers state government acquisition of 45 per cent equity stake of Shell Petroleum Development Company in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 11 and Kidney Island in Port Harcourt.
In a statement released on Friday 27th November 2020, and signed by the Mr Kelvin Ebiri, who is the Special Assistant (Media) to the Rivers State Governor, stated that the Rivers State government acquisition of OML 11 and Kidney Island was affirmed by the apex court on Friday, when it dismissed the multinational oil firm’s suit which sought the setting aside of the N17 billion judgment made against it in 2019.
It will be recalled that the Supreme Court had in January 2019, upheld the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which awarded N17 billion damages against Shell for a devastating oil spill that ravaged farmlands, rivers and streams in Ejama-Ebubu in Eleme Local Government Area.
Shell, had in July 2019, filed a suit at the Supreme Court to set aside its earlier judgment on the ground that the apex court did not go into the merit of their appeal before upholding the decision of the Court of Appeal.
But, the Supreme Court in a unanimous judgment prepared by Justice Centus Nweze and delivered by Justice Samuel Oseji, asserted that the appeal filed by Shell was frivolous and lacks merit.
Justice Oseji declared that the Supreme Court cannot revisit its earlier decision on the matter. To this end, the court dismissed Shell’s appeal for being incompetent and lacking in merit.
The Supreme Court held that parties are to bear the cost of their litigation.