Isoko youths sue minister, Shell, others over onshore oil facilities’ sale

[MrVan]

BY FESTUS AHON

UGHELLI – ISOKO youths under the aegis of Isoko National Youth Movement, have dragged Shell Petroleum and Development Company, SPDC; First Hydrocarbon Nigeria Limited; AFREN Group Plc; Nigeria Petroleum Development Company Limited, NPDC; Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and Minister of Petroleum Resources before a Federal High Court sitting in Asaba, Delta State over the sale of onshore oil facilities in Isokoland.

The suit, which has President of Isoko National Youth Movement, Mr. G. Okorobia; Chief Odomero Igbine, Chairman Board of Trustees; some oil family landlords in Oleh, Iyede-Ame, Igbide, Okpolo Enhwe and Emede as claimants, want the court "to set aside the sale and/or any transfer of Shell and NNPC interest and facilities (including OML 26 and OML30) to First Hydrocarbon and  AFREN Group, without the concurrence of the claimants, who are the customary landlords/lessors as null and void and of no effect whatsoever."

The youths want the court to compel Shell, First Hydrocarbon and AFREN Group to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the claimants to cater for the interest and the degradation of the claimant's environment and all other benefits accruable to the claimants."

They also want payment of 10 per cent of daily oil production quantum from the oil exploration activities of the defendants, and N2 billion as damages and "other equitable reliefs the court may deem fit to make in the circumstances."

The youths alleged that, "Shell and their co-venture operators have been carrying out exploration and exploitation activities including oil drilling in Isoko land for more than 55 years without anything to show for it."

They decried that despite enormous earnings by Shell and their co-ventures from the process of sale of crude oil and its constituents, the oil landlords and Isoko people in general "have been in lack and poverty," alleging that "Shell and their co-ventures are also involved in gas flaring, which has negative impact on the environment and on residents with its attendants health hazards."

Vanguard Nigeria