Shell Petroleum Develop-ment Company (SPDC) is about to forfeit ownership of the land hosting its biggest export terminal in the country following the judgment of the Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The Bonny terminal currently has over 12 million barrel of crude oil storage capacity and is also the biggest export terminal in Nigeria.

It has a helicopter landing pad and facilities capable of loading super tankers – in addition to an indoor berthing facility that can take six ocean going tankers, an expatriate club, a residential area, amongst others.
The Court of Appeal at the weekend re-affirmed Rivers State High Court order which ordered the multi-national oil giant to forfeit the land to the indigenes of Bonny.
The appellate court panel, made up of Justices Suleiman Galadima, Istifanus Thomas and Ejembi Eko, in a unanimous decision, did not only uphold the judgment of the lower court, but also dismissed the appeal filed by Shell, describing it as “substantially lacking merit”.

The court equally upbraided the oil giant for going behind the indigenes to obtain a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) in respect of the same land from the Rivers State Government without the consent and knowledge of the land owners.
Shell, by an agreement dated July 22, 1958, entered into between the Bonny land owners, represented by Chief Henry Brown and Chief Victor Jumbo, agreed to use the land at a rent of more than two Nigerian pounds, which from 1962 became payable yearly, but Shell, without consulting the Bonny land owners, obtained a C of O, dated March 18, 1998, which purports to turn it (Shell) into the landlord, rather than a tenant that it was by the July 22, 1958 agreement.
Trouble started for the oil giant when an investigation by Mr. Lucius Nwaosu (SAN), counsel to the Bonny people revealed, that the C of O covering the land was in favour of Shell.

The people consequently approached the Rivers State High Court to determine the legality or otherwise of the said C of O. In the substantive suit, they argued that under the Deed of Tenancy made on July 22, 1958 between the two parties, Shell was only a tenant on the land while the Bonny people remained the landlord.
In his judgment in 2008, Justice M. O. Opara of the River State High Court, declared that at all material times, the claimants as customary owners and consentors, are the landlords of Shell in respect of all the piece or parcel of land lying between the towns of Bonny and Finima in the Bonny Local Government area of Rivers State contained in a Deed of Tenancy made on July 22, 1958 and registered as No. 51 in volume 5 of the Lands Registry in the office at Enugu now kept in Port Harcourt.

Justice Opara noted that upon the coming into effect of the Land Use Act in 1978, the claimants were deemed to be grantees of or holders of the right of occupancy over the land covered by the said deed of tenancy.
He ruled that Shell by obtaining secretly from the Rivers State Government, without the knowledge and consent of the claimants, a C of O in respect of the land covered by the said Deed of Tenancy and which C of O is registered as No 33 on Page 33 in volume 258 of the Lands Registry in the office at Port Harcourt is unconstitutional, null, void and of no effect.
The judge further stated that before the said C of O was granted to the oil giant by the Rivers State Government, the claimants' deemed right of occupancy over and in the said land was not revoked and the said right of occupancy was still existing and subsisting.

He submitted that the act of Shell in obtaining, clandestinely, the C of O over the claimants' land constituted a challenge or denial of the title of the claimants as landlords of Shell and for which challenge, Shell has forfeited its right as a tenant in respect of the said land.
Dissatisfied, Shell appealled the judgment at the Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt but the court has now dismissed the appeal, saying that it lacked merit.
The appellate court also set aside the alternative reliefs granted by the lower court and affirmed the orders granted by the lower court. The orders include:

• That upon the coming into effect of the Land Use Act in 1978 the claimants were deemed to be grantees of or holders of the right of occupancy over the land covered by the said Deed of tenancy.
• That the act of Shell in obtaining secretly from the Rivers State government, without the knowledge and consent of the claimants, a certificate of occupancy in respect of the land covered by the said Deed of Tenancy and which certificate of occupancy is registered as No 33 at Page 33 in volume 258 of the Lands Registry in the office at Port Harcourt is unconstitutional, null, void and of no effect.
• That before the said certificate of occupancy was granted by Rivers State government to the Shell, the claimants deemed right of occupancy over and in the said land was not revoked and the said right of occupancy is still existing and subsisting.
• That the act of Shell in obtaining clandestinely the certificate of occupancy over the claimants land, constituted a challenge or denial of the title of the claimants as landlords of Shell and for which challenge, Shell has forfeited its right as a tenant in respect of the said land.
The court also set aside the certificate of occupancy and further ordered Shell to forfeit the land, the subject matter of the suit.
The court agreed with the decision of the lower court where it said: “Shell is ordered to forfeit its right as a tenant under the 1958 Deed of lease for the direct denial of its landlords title by setting up a rival title; the Certificate of Occupancy which is now a replacement for the 1958 lease agreement.”

What is wrong with this Shell self??

More to come, Thanks god this judges didn't receive bribe. Now people of Bonny own their land. Now that is Democracy. The people has to approve it before even federal government can allow any company to operate there. Nice one!!!