Shell MD, two others jailed for
disobeying court order
Published October 10, 2018
‘ / • We didn’ t disobey any court
order, says Shell
Chukwudi Akasike, Port Harcourt
A High Court sitting in Port Harcourt , the Rivers State
capital, has sentenced the Managing Director of Shell
Petroleum Development Company , Mr Osagie Okunbor ,
and two other top officials of the oil firm to three
months’ imprisonment with hard labour for contempt .
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The other two officials convicted by the court are Nike
Onyilola , who is the SPDC Secretary and Head of Legal
Department ; and Keibi Atemie , who is the Deputy
Country Head of Legal /Managing Counsel , Global
Litigation, Sub-Sahara Africa .
Delivering judgement on Tuesday in Suit Number
PHC /1929/ 2018, the presiding judge , Justice George
Omereji , said the three persons were convicted for
refusing to obey a court order in 2008 instructing them
to forfeit land where Bonny Crude Oil terminal was
located .
The court order , according to Justice Omereji , was
given 10 years ago by Justice Margaret Opara of the
Rivers State High Court .
It was gathered that the said land belonged to the
Jumbo Major House of Bonny and the Brown House of
Finima in the Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers
State .
Though the convicted Shell officials were not in court ,
Justice Omereji instructed the police and other law
enforcement agencies to arrest and send them to
prison.
The Jumbo Major House and Brown House, who are all
landlords to Shell in the Bonny LGA had approached
the court in Suit Number PHC/ 1956/2007 and
complained about the tenancy and compensation for
their land .
It was also learnt that Justice Opara had in 2008
instructed that Shell should give up the Bonny terminal
for violating the terms of tenancy and surreptitiously
getting a Certificate of Occupancy from the then
government of Rivers State for the said land .
Thirty per cent of Nigeria’ s crude oil is said to be
produced and exported from the land owned by Jumbo
Major House of Bonny and the Brown House of Finima.
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Shell had after the ruling in 2008 gone to the Appeal
Court , lost the case , and went to the Supreme Court ,
where it also lost .
Before sentencing the Shell officials , Justice Omereji
struck out a motion of notice by counsel for Shell and
the three top employees of the firm , praying the court
to set aside the court order that directed the landlords
to serve substituted means of notice of consequences of
disobedience of a court order.
Counsel for Bonny landlords , Lucius Nwosu ( SAN) and
Emmanuel Asido, and their counterpart for Shell
officials , Thompson Okpoko (SAN ), had earlier argued
on the matter.
But Justice Omereji declared that the committal of
Okunbor , Olafimihan and Atemie , was based on Shell ’ s
failure to obey the order of Justice Opara to surrender
the land to the owners.
However , reacting to the ruling , SPDC spokesperson,
Bamidele Odugbesan , stated that the oil company did
not accept that it disobeyed any court order and had
appealed the judgement.
“ We do not accept that SPDC disobeyed any lawful
order of court and have accordingly appealed this
judgement. The SPDC has utmost respect for the courts
and the laws of Nigeria .
“ As stated above , the landlord families settled with
SPDC in 2014 and collected all rents due on the land up
to 2019 as publicly declared by the landlord families in
The Guardian edition of Sunday , August 24, 2014 on
page 14.
“ SPDC takes seriously the personal liberty of its officers
and also the threat to continuing operations at the
Bonny Oil Terminal, a critical national asset in which
the Federal Government holds 55 per cent interest .

Well it shows nobody is above the law. This will really give Shell a bad image.