Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has indicated its readiness to pay N45.9 billion to Ogoni people in Rivers State.
This came as an Abuja Federal High Court presided over by Justice Ahmed Mohammed ordered the company to pay the sum to the affected within 21 days.
Mohammed confirmed this that A.O Ejelamo, lawyer to Shell said the company has resolved to pay the monetary compensation awarded in 2010 following a lawsuit instituted by 10 representatives of Ogoni people in 2001.
Justice Ibrahim Buba of the then Port Harcourt division of the Federal High Court awarded N17 billion as compensation to Ogoni people in June 2010.
The court equally granted the Ogoni chiefs a 25-percent interest charge on the principal sum of about N17 billion, but SPDC appealed against the judgment up to the Supreme Court and lost.
After the company approached the apex court seeking a review of the judgment debt in 2020, a five-member panel led by Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, dismissed its application in November 2020 on grounds of lacking merit.
The company through its counsel had told the court of its decision to pay up the money while Justice Mohammed had endorsed the final decision to pay the money.
