Vanguard (Lagos)
NEWS
May 21, 2006
Posted to the web May 22, 2006

By George Onah
Port Harcourt

THE Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has ordered Shell
Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, to pay $1.5 billion about N210 billion
into the coffers of Central Bank of Nigeria, in favour of the Ijaw
Aborigenes of Bayelsa State, between last Friday and noon tomorrow.

The order, Friday, by Justice Okechukwu Okeke followed an appeal of stay of
execution on a judgment delivered in February, in which the SPDC was ordered
to pay the Ijaws the amount as compensation for the damage done to their
land for nearly 50 years.

But counsel to the defendant, Chief Richard Akinjide (SAN), after that
judgment in February filed an application for stay of execution, pending the
determination of the substantive appeal. However, following the application,
the court, in its decision, ruled that SPDC should pay the $1.5billion to
the coffers of CBN in the name of the chief registrar of the Federal High
Court.

Justice Okeke said the ruling was based on the consideration that CBN was a
neutral party in the suit between SPDC and the Ijaws.

The judge explained that should the substantive appeal against the February
judgment favour SPDC, then the money could be paid back to the defendants.
On the other hand should the appeal fail, the Ijaws could then own the
money.

Further to this, she held that SPDC "is financially and substantially"
capable of paying the money it was being ordered to deposit in the apex
bank.

Speaking to Sunday Vanguard after the ruling, representative of the Ijaw
Aborigenes in the suit, Chief Pere Ajuwa could trace the origin of the Ijaw
demands to December 2000

Ajuwa said the troubled Ijaw people had complained to the National Assembly
which set up a committee to verify the claim of emplacement of the Bayelsa
land.

After the tour by the lower House and subsequent recommendation of its
committee, a panel of jurists was set up.

The jurists, made up of retired Supreme Court judges, recommended
$1.5billion, as demanded by the Ijaws, after which the House's committee
adopted the resolution. Shell was alleged to have refused to respond to the
letter from the House.

Again, Ajuwa explained that the Ijaw went to the Senate with its complaint
and that on August 24, 2003, the Senate passed a unanimous resolution in
support of the lower House's decision in favour of the Ijaw problems.

He alleged that Shell responded by saying that the National Assembly was not
a court and lacked the jurisdiction to order it to pay the amount in
question. The circumstances, he said, compelled the Ijaw to go to court
which gave rise to the judgment.

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