OML 11: Rivers secures judgment against Shell

 Mike Odiegwu, Port Harcourt

A High Court in Port Harcourt has ruled in favour of Rivers State in a suit against Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) on Oil Mining Licence (OML) 11.

Justice Charles Nwogu granted the state’s prayers in the case filed by the attorney-general and commissioner for Justice.

Rivers prayed the court to compel SPDC to render accounts on and pay to the claimant accruals from the defendant’s continued appropriation of the pecuniary interests in OML 11.

It asked for arrears of commercial rents for the use of the property from the date the deputy sheriff of the High Court of Rivers State issued title documents to the claimant till the defendant peaceably yielded up possession.

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Justice Nwogu held that the defendant’s “continued defiant appropriation, despite the completed sale of possessory and usufructuary rights, including pecuniary accruals in respect of its fixed assets comprised in its Kidney Island Base, Port Harcourt and interests in lands comprised in OML 11, infringes on the claimant’s vested respective rights to title and pecuniary interests therein”.

He also said the defendant was bound to render accounts and pay to the claimant “all accruals from the defendant’s continued appropriation of the pecuniary interests in the said OML 11, including arrears of commercial rents for their use of the Kidney Island Base and Jetty from the date the deputy sheriff of the High Court, issued title documents thereon to the claimant until the defendant peaceably yields up possession thereof”.

The court restrained the defendant or its agents from embarking on acts or omissions adverse to the title, right and interest of the claimant over the fixed landed assets.