Supreme Court overturns appeal by energy company against 8 Rivers communities
The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal filed by an energy production and distribution firm, NVT Power & Energy Ltd., against the judgment given in favor of eight communities in Rivers.
Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, in a ruling, ordered the dismissal of the appeal marked SC/CV/849/2022 filed against the June 7 ruling of the Court of Appeal, Port-Harcourt.
The apex court's order dismissing the appeal made on Nov. 4 was the sequel to an application by NVT Power for the withdrawal of the appeal.
The certified true copy (CTC) of the ruling was, however, obtained on Friday by the newsmen in Abuja.
The communities involved include the Opu-Benibo Granville community, the Orubibi Douglas community, the Blackduke Oweredaba community, the Ajumogobia-Bestman community, the Oruwari community, and the Siri Young Jack community.
Others are the Don-Pedro community and the Membere community, all in Abonnema Kingdom, Akuku Toru Local Government Area of Rivers.
The host communities had, in October 2020, sued the firm at the High Court of Rivers State sitting in Port-Harcourt.
The communities had prayed the court to, among other things, compel the firm to negotiate with them and "pay forthwith to their attorney/legal representative all agreed accruals, benefits, and compensation that are due to the claimant communities by reason of the defendant's activities, operations, and facilities within the lands of the claimant communities."
Parties later agreed to a settlement, which Justice A. Enebeli adopted as the court's consent judgment in the case on June 2.
The terms of the settlement agreement were that the communities, "being independent, autonomous communities and the location of the defendant's several facilities and activities, are entitled to participate in and benefit directly from all accruals, rents, contracts, development, and economic empowerment."
They are also entitled to compensation, environmental clean-up, scholarships and economic empowerment projects undertaken by all companies including the defendant for their host communities in Abonnema Kingdom in Akuku Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State of Nigeria."
They were also to "be included in all agreements and or Global Memorandum of Understanding to be executed or entered into between the defendant and its hosts communities in Abonnema Kingdom in Akuku Toru local Government Area of Rivers State of Nigeria."
The firm was ordered to negotiate with the communities through their lawyers and "pay forthwith to their attorney/legal representative all agreed accruals, benefits, and compensation that is due to the claimant communities by reason of the defendant's activities, operations, and facilities within the lands of the claimant communities in Abonnema Kingdom, Akuku Toru Local Government, and Rivers State of Nigeria."
Justice Enebeli subsequently ordered NVT to pay each of the eight communities N1 million, an aspect of the consent judgment which the firm appealed against at the Court of Appeal, Port-Harcourt.
In a ruling on June 7, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal in Port-Harcourt, led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh, struck out NVT's appeal for being incompetent because it had been filed without first seeking the court's leave.
NVT then appealed the ruling of the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court, an appeal it subsequently withdrew, which the apex court dismissed in its ruling.
