The people of Obodougwa-Ogume community in the Ndokwa West Local Government Area of Delta State have appealed to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to respect the 2003 judgement of the Supreme Court on the protracted land dispute between them and the people of Emu-Ebendo community.
The Chairman of Obodougwu-Ogume Community Development Committee, Mr. Anslem Onyigbo, made the appeal on behalf of the community on Friday.
Onyigbo appealed to the Ifeanyi Okowa-led administration in the state to compel the two parties to respect and abide by the judgment of the Supreme Court on the land matter which was delivered in 2003.
He lamented that the 40 years land dispute had claimed many lives of innocent people from both sides.
He said, “We are appealing to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State to dialogue and find a way to resolve our differences as it relates to the land dispute.
“But let us not forget that the Supreme Court has given judgement on the matter in 2003. The court gave its judgement based on the map of the disputed land, so coming to say that they want to amend the map is very very wrong.
“The people of Emu-Ebendo want an amendment of the map, they should go back to the court and do so. You cannot seek to amend the map that the Apex court had given judgment on.
“For further clarifications, I wrote to the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, wherein I submitted a detailed trajectory of the marginalisation, deprivation, humiliation, injustice and the wrong enforcement of the Supreme Court judgment.”
In the letter dated June 10, 2022 and made available to Saturday PUNCH, the Attorney-General of the Federation came out with a position paper stating that the judgement of the Supreme Court as interpreted by the High Court on the matter remained binding and as such all parties were obligated to obey same.
“All persons and authorities subordinate to the Supreme Court are duty-bound to enforce the decision of the apex court. The judgement of the Supreme Court is limited to Oluiji and Iyiachi lands as contained in the reliefs and judgement did not make Obodo-Ugwa community a tenant of Emu-Ebendo.
“In the interest of peace, however, I advise that the oil companies abide by these judgements and honour their social contracts obligation to Obodo-Ugwa Ogume Community as their host community and also extend same to Emu-Ebendo, which is obviously a contagious and impacted community.”
The letter also directed Energia Limited to formally recognise and accord to Obodo-Ugwa its social contract obligations as its landlord and host community and also clearly observed that Ebendo is obviously a neighbouring and an impacted community.
The AGF pointed out that all parties, including Energia Oil and relevant government MDAs, were bound by the decision of the apex court, from which there could be no further appeal or contrary actions by the parties.
However, Onyibo urged Energia Oil Limited to do the needful and expedite action in the processing and execution of a new Memorandum of Understanding in the manner indicating Obodo-Ugwa as its host community.
