By Nneka Nwogwugwu
Some oil communities in Ibeno Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State have dragged the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited to enforce an N82 billion judgement debt.
Ibeno communities led by Obong Effiong Archianga and nine others brought the action against the NNPC and the two oil giants at the Federal High Court, Abuja, through their lawyer, Lucius Nwosu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
They had, in their original suit, sought about N100 billion compensation for economic losses they had suffered as a result of the oil spillages caused by the defendants during exploration.
Premium Times reports that in June last year, the court ordered the international oil companies and NNPC to pay the oil communities cumulative damages of N81.9 billion over oil spillage.
The judge, Taiwo Taiwo, ordered the defendants to pay the plaintiffs within 14 days, failing which eight per cent interest would be accruable on the principal sum annually.
The judge struck out the name of the 3rd defendant, which is another subsidiary of Mobil, ExxonMobil Corporation, on the grounds that it had no blame in the issue.
To enforce the judgement debt, the plaintiffs (judgement creditors) approached the court with an ex-parte application, seeking to compel the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and some commercial banks to pay them the N82 billion judgement debt from the bank accounts of the debtors.
A.O. Okeaya-Imoh and Ogwu Onoja, both Senior Advocates of Nigeria, filed the garnishee nisi proceedings, which is a preliminary judgment enforcement application, on behalf of the plaintiffs on December 15, 2021.
Ruling on the application, the judge, Mr Taiwo, ordered the attachment of funds belonging to the judgment debtors in the CBN and the various commercial banks.
Apart from the CBN, other banks affected by the order include First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, and Access Bank Plc. There are 19 other commercial banks ordered by the court to pay over the N82 billion judgement debt from the accounts of the plaintiffs in their custody to the aggrieved oil communities in Ibeno LGA of Akwa-Ibom State.
Following the court’s order asking the banks to explain why its earlier orders should not “be made absolute”, the NNPC represented by Damian Dodo, a SAN, appeared before Mr Taiwo on January 31.
The NNPC’s lawyer argued that the court’s judgement debt of last June was being contested at the Court of Appeal in Abuja.
“My Lord, it’s unfortunate that steps are being taken to enforce the judgement despite a pending appeal at the Court of Appeal,” Mr Dodo lamented.
He further contended that the failure of the plaintiffs to join all the garnishee debtors to the entire proceedings was fatal to the suit’s survival.
“We urge the court to bring to an end the garnishee proceedings,” Mr Dodo prayed the court.