By Nathan Nwakamma Yenagoa
The Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) has decried the flagrant disobedience of court judgment on spill compensation in a Bayelsa host community by the Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC).
Mr Nengi James, the state Chairman of the CLO, at news conference on Wednesday in Yenagoa, said the refusal by the oil firm to compensate the Azuzuama community in Bayelsa was an invitation to anarchy.
James noted that it was regrettable that the affected communities of four spill incidents were deprived from benefiting from the N30.5 million compensation in 2004.
He said that the affected communities went to court and got judgment in their favour up to the court of appeal, “the communities are yet to get justice’’.
The CLO noted that the even though the community opted to channel its grievances through the law courts, the judgment was yet to be enforced, setting a dangerous precedent that might compel them to seek self-help.
Narrating the plight of Azuzuama community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area at the news conference, Mr Kelvin Ejelonu, Counsel to the community, noted that the people won the legal tussle at Federal High Court and Court of Appeal.
“An action was filed against Agip at the Federal High Court in Yenagoa on May 22, 2010, and on June 30, 2010, the court gave judgment against Agip and ordered the company to pay the compensation sum with additional N3 million damages.
“Though Agip appealed the judgment, on Agip’s application for stay of execution of the said judgment, the Federal High Court refused the said application and ordered Agip to pay the said sum into the court.
“But Agip refused to comply with the court’s order, and Agip’s appeal was dismissed on April 10, 2014, by the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt Division, thereafter Garnishee proceedings to enforce the judgment commenced,” Ejelonu said.
He explained that Agip and its bankers resisted the enforcement of the court judgments and approached the same court for a stay of execution which the court declined.
He said that while pressure from the community initially compelled Agip’s bankers to pay the judgment sum into a Federal High Court, Yenagoa, it also quickly reversed the payment under the pretext that it had an Appeal Court’s order.
However, he observed that neither Agip nor its bankers had shown the appeal court order on which it based the decision to revert the judgment debt earlier paid into court’s coffers.
According to him, the Bayelsa Police Command had also commenced prosecution of Agip and its bankers.
Ejelonu noted that the connivance of NAOC and its bankers to evade justice was capable of eroding the confidence of other Niger Delta communities to be law abiding.
He, therefore, urged relevant agencies of government to preserve the rule of law and the sanctity of the judiciary, and avoid setting a negative precedent for other oil communities in the region.
He said that the communities were resolute and prepared to pursue the case up to the apex court haven earlier secured judgments at the federal and appeal courts, respectively.
