N225 BILLION SUIT: Court Orders Aradel Holdings To Permit Land Survey
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by Pearl HaroldA High Court in the Ahoada Judicial Division of Rivers State, has ordered Aradel Holdings PLC to allow Agwolo and Ochoeke Royal families of Ogbele Community to survey a parcel of land in dispute.
Justice Sylvester S. Popnen, who gave the order July 15, 2024 after an oral motion by the counsel to the claimants ( Agwolo and) Professor Mike Ozoekeme SAN, added that both parties in the case should be present during the process of the survey exercise and that it should be concluded within 14days.
The case with the suit number: AHC/38/CS/2020 is instituted by
Agwolo/Ochoeke Royal Families of Ogbele in Ahoada East LGA, Claimants, against Niger Delta Petroleum Resources Plc NDPR, now Aradel Holdings PLC, Defendant.
Speaking with journalists after his Motion was upheld, Ozoekeme explained that the ruling was a wind that blows good for both parties and also a right decision taken by the Court for the interest of justice.
The counsel said; “This is a case of the Agwolo and Ocho-eke Royal Families complaining that since 2001 when the company came to their land, they have never been paid any rentals on their land.
“When this case was instituted in 2020, 18 years have passed by without my clients getting one Kobo. The constitution of Nigeria is clear that even if you want to take over a person’s land, even the government, you must allow the people to have access to their land and determine their interest, so that adequate compensation will be paid for the land. That is the position of the constitution of Nigeria, which is the supreme law.
“The law that is beyond every other law in Nigeria says, when your land is to be acquired, even by the government for public purposes and this is a profit making company. You must allow the owners to have access to their land and to determine their interest and then pay them adequate compensation.
“The Defendant claimed that they have paid for economic crops but we said no, paying for that does not equate for buying or renting the land for valueable consideration.
“You have come to people’s land demolished, destroyed their ancestral relics, shrines, the warehouses and buildings met on the land and have replaced it with petrochemical or gas industry that emits dangerous smokes, destroyed aquatic and agrarian lives, leading to diseases for the people and you have not paid for this land.
“The Defendant said that it has entered into an MoU with a larger community called Ogbele, but the Ochoeke and Agwolo Royal Families are the land owners and not a supposed larger community of Ogbele. Land in Ekpeye Ethnic Nationality is owned by families and not community. No communal land.
“It is wrong to enter people’s land and begin to destroy, despoil and utilize without payment. As at the year 2020, Four Billion, One Hundred and Sixty Six Million, One Hundred and Sixty Six Thousand naira per annum was adequate rental for this land. And if you calculate that up to 2020 when we instituted this case, we arrived at Seventy Five Billion Naira which they are to pay to the Claimants.
“We also asked for One Hundred and Fifty Billion Naira general damages.
“Each time the Claimants wanted to go to survey the land, the Defendant refused them, using the Police, Military to beat them up. Today, by the grace of God and thanks to the wisdom of the Presiding Judge, all that has stopped, because the Judge has made it an order that it does no injustice to any of the parties to allow for survey of the land and he has granted that request.”
He further hinted that Aradell Holdings PLC was introduced to his Client by Chevron, and were welcomed with an open hands to develop their community but pleaded that an MoU be entered between the company and families, for their charter of demands to be tabled.
“They are treating the people like a conquered territory, like a rampaging army. But we are in Court to tell them that the people are not a conquered territory, that they have their inalienable rights to occupy their ancestral land
When asked of purported threat by the Defendant on his clients, especially King Salvation Ezegwogwo and his father, he said; “All I will say is that they should desist from that. Because this matter is subjudice, the case is in court. If they are found to be doing that, threatening our clients because they have power and money, I will bring contempt proceedings against them and get the highest of the management to be jailed for contempt of court. They can not touch the subject matter when the case is going on.
“Our clients are peace loving people. They have never destroyed any of them.
Aradel Holdings PLC, formerly Niger Delta Petroleum Resources Plc, NDPR, is the operator of OML 54.
