The Ejama-Ebubu Community in Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State has lamented the continued police harassment following the oil-spill compensation from the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited.
Indigenes of the community alleged that after Shell made the payment, a 13-man disbursement committee was set to release the sum of N5 million to each member of the community and also carry out some road construction in the community.
However, Barr. Ayodele Salami, Counsel to the Ejama-Ebubu Community said some members of the community, after receiving their share of the money, resorted to using the police to intimidate and harass members of the disbursement committee, including the community monarch, Chief Peter Oguru, Punch reports.
According to him, the harassment began in June 2022. He added that the community went to court and secured a judgement from a Federal High Court presided over by Justice Phoebe Ayua on August 31 2022.
He said the court ruled that the 13-man committee should not be subjected to any form of police harassment, but expressed worry that the situation had persisted despite the court judgement against the security agency.
He said, “On Friday, December 2, 2022, at 7 pm policemen stormed the palace of Chief Peter Oguru and forcefully tried to arrest him.
“The police humiliated and rubbished him and the traditional stool, but for the swift intervention of the community women, the police eventually dropped an invitation letter and left.
“This same chief had ordered the payment of N5 million to every indigene of the community from money paid to the community by Shell.
“This persistent harassment began in June 2022. Many members of the committee have been arrested by the police at one point or the other. Some were arrested and kept in custody for over four days.
“Our appeal is that the Nigerian Police should respect the rule of law. There is a court judgement on the ground barring the police from intimidating members of the committee.”
He said already they had petitioned the Inspector General of Police and the state Commissioner of Police to intervene and call their men to order.
“We have petitioned the IGP and the CP. The letter to the CP has been delivered and that of the IGP should get to him this week because we sent it by courier. We had to petition the IGP and CP because they are not aware of what the police is doing in our community,” he explained.
Also speaking, a member of the committee, Chief Hope Ollornwi, accused some members of the community of being the masterminds of the police harassment because they want to be incorporated into the committee and also forcefully get contracts.
He traced the historical origin of the funds to the oil spills in the community from Shell facility, saying they have been in court with Shell since 1983 and later on in 1991, and eventually got a judgement of N10 billion compensation in their favour in the 90s.
Ollornwi further said Shell failed to pay the N10 billion compensation then, while the compound interest on the money grew to N285 billion in 2021, when the Supreme Court ordered Shell to pay the community.
“Shell came for an out-of-court settlement and the sum of N45billion was released for the community. Half of the money went to the legal counsel who has been handling the case without a dime from the community for 30 years, while a billion came to the community.
“From this N23 billion, we have paid over 4,000 members of the community the sum of N5 million each. We have also constructed 8.5km of roads within the community,” he said.
When contacted, the spokesperson of the state police command, Grace Iringe-Koko, assured that the Commissioner of Police, Okon Efffion, would act on the letter they claimed to have written when he sees it.
“But let them come to my office so that the CP will give them an appointment and possibly invite those concerned,” the state police image maker stated.
