Customers Panic: 1st Bank in N182.7bn Oil Spills Palaver …Bank, Shell To Settle Ogoni Community

Customers of First Bank are in worry state, considering the garnished order from an Abuja court recently.

A Federal High Court in Abuja has made a garnishee order absolute compelling the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to pay the Ejama Community in Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State a total sum of N182.7 billion.

The amount is to be deducted from the account of First Bank of Nigeria Limited in the custody of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The amount represents the punitive measures slammed on Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Limited for devastating the community and its environs and ecosystem with oil spillage.

The Court presided over by Justice E. I. Ekwo made the order absolute against the CBN and First Bank Nigeria Plc, sequel to a similar one made by Justice Ibrahim Buba on June 3, 2019, while delivering judgment in a suit brought before him by the representatives of Ejama community, who have been in a long legal battle with SPDC.

In his ruling, Justice Ekwo held after hearing Matthew Echo with Princewill Akinseye George and others held: “that an Order Absolute is hereby made upon the Order Nisi of this court made on June 3, 2019 compelling the garnishee to pay over to the judgment creditors/applicants monies belonging to the guarantor/ surety/debtor (First Bank of Nigeria Limited) in the garnishee’s (CBN) custody in satisfaction of the judgment debt in Suit No. FHC/PH/CS/231/2001 (later renumbered Suit No. FHC/ASB/ CS/57/2010): Chief Isaac Osaro Agbara & Ors. Vs. the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited & Ors., which judgment debt the guarantor/ surety/ debtor secured and guaranteed to pay the judgment creditors in the sums of: (a) as special damages; (b) Interest for delayed payment for five years from 1996 at 25 per cent per annum i.e, (c) 25per cent of the said sum till the date of judgment, (d) N10 billion as general damages; and (e)10 per cent interest on the judgment debt till payment giving a total of N76, 871, 175, 831.18 as at June 14, 2010, being the date of the judgment but with the accrual of post judgment interest totalled N182. 768, 696, 651.89 billion”.

The case, which started in 1991, was originally instituted at the Rivers State High Court, Nchia Division, by six indigenes of Ogoniland against the Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Netherlands, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, United Kingdom, and SPDC over alleged oil spills that occurred when Shell operated in the community.

The plaintiffs alleged that it was the same case that led to the Ogoni struggle championed by the late Mr. Ken Saro Wiwa.

Judgment was eventually entered in their favour against Shell by the state High Court, whereupon the defendant appealed against the said judgment.

However, in 2001, a fresh suit was commenced by some representatives of the Ogoni people before the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, presided over by Justice Ibrahim Buba claiming N17 billion and interests on the said sum for the losses allegedly caused by the oil spills.

Justice Buba, after listening to the submissions of the parties in the suit, in his judgment in 2010, awarded N17 billion to the representatives of the Ogoni people.

The court equally granted the Ogoni Chiefs 25 per cent interest charge on the principal sum of about 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, First Bank, to provide a guarantee of the judgment sum. This condition was complied with.

But Shell’s appeal failed at the Court of Appeal on technical grounds, ostensibly because it filed its processes out of time and without regularising them.

 Accordingly, in December 2018, the judgment creditors (Ogoni representatives) not only commenced garnishee proceedings at the Federal High Court in Owerri, Imo State, presided over by Justice Lewis Allagoa, it also filed contempt proceedings against First Bank before Justice Buba who delivered the judgment in Port Harcourt in 2010 but now sitting in Enugu division of the Court.

Before then, Shell and First Bank had proceeded to the Supreme Court but their appeal was dismissed last year, dismissed.

It was following the dismissal of the their appeal by the Apex Court that the Ogoni chiefs resumed for the garnishing proceedings.