By Fredrick Wright
Shell Petroleum Development Company, has agreed to pay N45.9billion to the Ogoni people of Rivers State for the losses they had suffered from oil spillage that ravaged their communities.
This decision comes 10 years after a Federal High Court ordered the company to pay the compensation.
Shell, through its lawyer, Chief A. O Ejelamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, announced the decision to pay up the money while addressing Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Wednesday.
The senior lawyer sought the order of Justice Mohammed to permit payment of the debt through the Chief Registrar of the court in a bank account to be opened for the purpose.
The final decision to pay up the money was endorsed by Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
The company had earlier maintained that the damage was caused by third parties.
A Nigerian court fined Shell the equivalent of $41.36m in 2010, but the company launched a number of unsuccessful appeals.
Last year, the country’s Supreme Court said that, with interest, the fine owed by the company was more than ten times greater than the original judgment, although Shell denied this. The case was launched in 1991.
Shell has previously said it was not given the opportunity to defend itself against the claims and began international arbitration over the case earlier this year.
“They ran out of tricks and decided to come to terms,” lawyer Lucius Nwosa, who represented the local community, was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency. “The decision is a vindication of the resoluteness of the community for justice.”
While the case dates back decades, pollution from leaking oil pipelines continues to be a major issue in the Niger Delta.
Earlier this year, in a separate case, a Dutch appeals court ruled that Shell’s Nigerian branch was responsible for damage caused by leaks in the Niger Delta from 2004 to 2007.
The court ordered Shell Nigeria to pay compensation to Nigerian farmers, while the subsidiary and its Anglo-Dutch parent company were told to install equipment to prevent future damage.
