Court orders Shell to stop termination of indigenous contractors
Astae High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has ordered Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to stop the termination of the GSA Logistics Services contract awarded to indigenous contractors in Nigeria Delta.
The court reaffirmed the order for SPDC to stop the process of terminating the logistics contracts handled by indigenous contractors from oil host communities in the Niger Delta.
The Court presided over by Justice I.P Igwe restrained the SPDC from stopping, truncating or calling off the bidding process of contract number CW502377 already bid for by the indigenous Niger Delta companies for logistics support services for government’s security agencies in their facilities.
The claimants, in the suit No. PHC/3578/CS/2022, filed by Alabo Datelima Membere, Godknows Ologbolo on behalf of the Niger Delta Youths for Transparent and Accountability Watch Dog (NDYAWG), had approached the court to seek an interim injunction restraining the SPDC against termination of the indigenous contractors.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, the NNPC Upstream Investment Services (formerly National Petroleum Investment Services), the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission and the SPDC were listed as respondents/defendants.
The order, which was first issued on November 10, 2022, was re-affirmed on Thursday, 20th April, 2023 based on the application of the claimants’ counsel.
Justice Igwe, after hearing and determination on the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction from the claimants’ counsel, Tonye Wilson, also ordered that an interim injunction be issued restraining the fourth defendant, SPDC or its privies, servants or agents from truncating the ongoing contracts.
The judge said: “That the claimant shall enter into an understanding in damages to be paid in favour of the defendants in the sun of N5m (N5,000,000) only should the motion on notice and substantive case be found to be frivolous.”
The court, however, adjourned the substantive case until June 20, 2023.
Recall that indigenous contractors handling the GSA logistics services are locked in battle with the SPDC over the supply of patrol speedboats and other logistics materials for the use by security personnel to protect oil facilities in and around host communities.
The aggrieved contractors had complained that despite the effective handling of contracts over the years, the SPDC allegedly intended to take the contracts away from them in connivance with other firms to re-award them to non-indigenous contractors who did not know anything about the terrains of the region.
