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Godwin Tsa, Abuja
Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria Limited has been dragged before the Abuja division of the Federal High Court over alleged non remittance and under declaration of crude oil sales to the Federal government estimated at about N5 trillion.
In the suit filed by an environmental activist and legal practitioner, Anderson Achilike, the petroleum giant was alleged to have engaged in the under declaration of crude oil exportation and shipment, instigation of acts of pipeline vandalism, oil theft, third party interference in trunk line operations and incessant fire outbreaks.
Other defendants in the suit filed on Wednesday are the Attorney General of the Federation, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, as second and third defendants respectively.
Achilike said he filed the suit “as a matter of urgent national importance to save the dwindling economic fortunes of the country from acts capable of undermining the future of Nigeria.”
He therefore asked the court to issue “an order directing and compelling the 3rd defendant as a designated financial intelligence unit in Nigeria, acting with or through the 2nd defendant and/or other security agencies, to carry out an investigation of the 1st defendant over cases of non-remittance and under-declaration of crude oil exportation and shipment, third party interference in its trunk line operations, incessant cases of fire outbreak, repeated incidents of sabotage or other suspicious activities or occurrences at its Forcados and Bonny Oil Terminals and Bonga FSPO (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading) vessel, which has resulted in loss of revenue, continuous oil theft. monumental shortfall in crude oil production, poor economic revenue, pipeline vandalism, disruption of oil production, destruction of oil installation. economic sabotage in Nigeria”.
