The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and 15 persons have taken the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to ECOWAS Court over its failure to probe the operations of illegal oil pipelines and theft from 2001 to 2022.
SERAP also wants the Buhari government to name and prosecute those suspected of being involved in the illegal oil pipelines and to recover the proceeds of the crime.
The suit was filed by SERAP’s lawyer, Kolawole Oluwadare, on behalf of the organization, Chief Eric Dooh, (who is suing for himself as a leader of the Goi Community in Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State, and on behalf of the Goi Community), and 15 other concerned Nigerians.
In the suit No. ECW/CCJ/APP/53/22 and filed on Friday before the ECOWAS Court of Justice, Abuja, the Plaintiffs also want the court to “compel the present administration under Buhari to respect and protect the human rights of the people of Niger Delta that have continued to suffer the consequences of oil theft by non-state actors.”
The suit is coming after recent reports of the discovery of at least 58 illegal oil pipelines used to steal Nigeria’s oil wealth.
The stealing is purportedly carried out through the illicit pipeline connected to the trunk line through an abandoned pipeline, and linked to a location in the high sea, where they load crude oil into vessels and sell overseas.
