Youth Activist Drags Firm To Court For Abandoning MoU

A former acting Chairman of Egi Youth Assembly, Onelga Rivers State, Comrade Udobueze Arugu Obulor has dragged one of the multinational oil company operating in the state, Total E&P Nigeria Limited before a state High Court for alleged abandoning of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Egi communities and the company.
Comrade Obulor who is praying the court among others things to mandatorily compel Total E&P Nigeria Limited to immediately remits the sum of $30million to the Trust Fund account for the special development of the Egi communities.
According to the claimant, the said amount was part of the money agreed upon with the company in 2014 during the gas eruption that engulfed the area which led to loss of lives and the cessation of economic activities on the area at that period.
However, when the matter came up at the state High Court 13 presided over by Justice George Omereji, the lawyers to the Total E&P notified the court of a stay of proceeding following the company’s appeal to the Appeal Court and added that they were not prepared to continue on the hearing of the originating motion.
The presiding judge, Justice George Omereji while adjourning the matter to 27/7/2018 said the court would hear the claimant’s preliminary objection and counter affidavit together when the cost imposed on the defendant by the court had been paid.
Earlier in an interview with journalists after the court sitting, the Monday in Port Harcourt, the claimant, Comrade Udobueze Arugu Obulor said he instituted the matter to compel Total E&P to immediately commence the funding of the Egi Communities Trust Fund account so that the development processes of the area could be fastracked.
He alleged that some privileged individuals from the area were at the verge of conniving with the company to divert the money to their private uses.
According to him, they have allegedly compromised with the company to spend the $30 million to fund a brick plant and added that the brick plant factory would have no economic value to the people.
He averred that the people of Egi clan must discuss and negotiate the type of developmental projects they desired rather than being subjected to accept projects that would not make positive impacts on their lives.