Non remittance: Order EFCC, AGF to probe Shell, activist asks court

By Vivian Okejeme, Abuja

A legal practitioner, Anderson Achilike, has sued SHELL Petroleum Development Company Nigeria Ltd, over alleged non remittance and under declaration of crude oil exportation and shipment.
Also for under instigation of acts of pipeline vandalism, oil theft, third party interference in trunk line operations as well as incessant cases of fire outbreak.
The Attorney General of the Federation and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) were also mentioned as defendants in the matter before federal high court Abuja.
Achilike, who is also an environmental activist, said he filed the action “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”.
Therefore, he is praying for “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 etc in Nigeria”.
“An order directing and compelling the EFCC to carry out a quantitative investigation of the amount or quantity of crude oil coming into or supplied to and exported from the SHELL‘s Forcados and Bonny Oil Terminals and Bonga FSPO (floating production, storage and offloading) vessel as well as the amount or quantity of crude oil, claimed to have been or supposed to have been, exported from the said terminals from 1st January, 2001 to 31st August 2019.
Among other reliefs, the plaintiff wants a declaration that the act or conduct of SHELL in not remitting and under-declaring of crude oil exportation and shipment, instigating criminal acts of pipeline vandalism, oil theft, third party interference to trunk line operations, incessant cases of the outbreak, repeated incidents of sabotage or other suspicious activities or occurrences as well as the coven stealing of Nigeria’s crude oil as a result thereof by the SHE’LL from its Forcados and Bonny Oil Terminals and Bonga FSPO (floating production, storage and offloading) vessel is illegal, unlawful and constitutes economic sabotage and crime against the Nigerian State.
The plaintiff is also praying for “A declaration that the EFCC being a designated financial intelligence unit in Nigeria, acting with or through the AGF and/or other security agencies, has the bounden statutory duty to investigate various acts and/or allegations of commission of economic crimes by SHELL against the Federal Government of Nigeria through its non-remittance and under-declaration of crude oil exportation and shipment, various acts of self-induced oil theft. pipeline vandalism, disruption of oil production, destruction of oil installation. economic sabotage etc.