ECOWAS court asks Nigeria to punish oil firms for pollution

The ECOWAS court has ruled that the Federal Government should make the oil companies to account for pollution in the Niger Delta.
In a suit SERAP v. Nigeria, filed by SERAP counsel, Femi Falana SAN, Adetokunbo Mumuni and Sola Egbeyinka, it was alleged that the government and six oil companies were involved in violation of human rights and associated oil pollution in the Niger Delta.
SERAP also alleged “oil spills and waste materials polluting water used for drinking and other domestic purposes; failure to secure the underlying determinants of health, including a healthy environment, and failure to enforce laws and regulations to protect the environment and prevent pollution.”
In the judgment which was delivered by a panel of six judges, Justice Awa Nana Daboya, Justice Benefeito Mosso Ramos, Justice Hansine Donli, Justice Alfred Benin, Justice Clotilde Medegan and Justice Eliam Potey, the court unanimously found the Nigerian government responsible for abuses by oil firms and made it clear that the government must hold the firms and other perpetrators to account.
The court also found that Nigeria violated Articles 21 (on the right to natural wealth and resources) and 24 (on the right to a general satisfactory environment) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights by failing to protect the Niger Delta and its people from the operations of oil companies that have for many years devastated the region.

Court Dismisses $12.5bn Gulf Oil Windfall Suit

A Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a suit seeking to expose how the  $12.5 billion gulf war oil windfall that accrued to Nigeria under the leadership of retired General Ibrahim Babangida in 1990 was spent.

Justice Gabriel Kolawole said the applicants had no locus standi to institute the action and that they failed to establish by admissible evidence that they were entitled to a hearing.
Six civil society groups had sued the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) asking that the accrued revenue be accounted for.

The groups are the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), Women Advocates and Documentation Centre, Committee for Defence of Human Rights, Access to Justice, Human and Environmental Development Agenda and Partnership for Justice.
The applicants, through their counsel, Femi Falana (SAN), had asked the court to make an order of mandamus compelling the AGF and CBN to publish a detailed statement of accounts showing how the money was spent between 1988 and 1994.

After several adjournments, Justice Kolawole finally delivered the much-awaited judgment.
In dismissing the suit, Justice Kolawole held that the suit was statute barred because it was not filed within the statutory twelve months period after the Okigbo panel report was produced and submitted.