Group demands N3. 2b compensation for victims of Ossisioma pipelines explosion, drags FG, NNPC to court

Ayodele Olalere

A judiciary group, Access to Justice (A2J), has instituted  a N3, 215 billion lawsuit against the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and others over the neglect of victims of Ossisioma Ngwa pipeline fire explosion.

Others dragged to court includes Pipeline Product Marketing Company (PPMC).

Recall that on October 12, 2018, a system 2E petroleum pipeline belonging to the NNPC and managed by its subsidiary, the PPMC had caught fire and exploded in the Ossisioma Ngwa community of Abia State resulting in a massive conflagration that burnt and destroyed several human and animal lives and properties in the community.

Residents of Umuaduru and Umuimo villages as well as residents of Uratta, Umuze and Njiko Umunna Communities in Ossisioma Ngwa ocal government area, were also affected by the inferno.

On October 20, 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari, through his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, had claimed that the explosions was likely caused by suspected oil thieves, even before thorough investigations were carried out to ascertain the cause of the incident.

In a statement by A2J signed by Chinelo Chiwezie,  it accused NNPC, PPMC and the federal government of sweeping the incident under the carpet without compensation for victims.

“As far as Access to Justice is concerned, since that tragic event, all three parties have swept the matter under the rug, leaving thousands of people affected by the explosions, directly or indirectly, to bear alone the brutal and horrifying consequences of that calamity.

“Even the federal government which has a non-derogable duty to protect the lives of Nigerian people did not lift a finger to interrogate the role of the oil establishment in the unfortunate calamities, but chose to side with the impunity with which they behaved,” the statement stated.

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Access to Justice Intervention

On October 10,  2019, the group filed a suit against the Pipelines Product Marketing Company (PPMC), the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FGN) in Suit HOS/88/2019 at the Ossisioma division of the Abia State High Court.

Led by counsels to the victims, Mr Joseph Otteh Esq. and Daniel Aloaye Esq. (counsel), the group alleges that “the Oil companies were complicit and negligent in the series of events that led to the pipeline explosions in Ossisioma Ngwa communities that caused large-scale devastation to those communities following the pipeline explosions.”

 It also claims that “the oil companies, in the aftermath of the occurrence of the tragic incidents  treated the victims, many of whom suffered extreme, blistering burns and were at serious risk of death, with cold-blooded indifference: the oil companies did not provide relief supplies or materials, did not offer life-saving medical care or treatment, and did not extend any financial help or compensation to families who desperately needed assistance, or lost bread-winners, neither did they offer the simplest forms of emotional comfort like visiting families affected by the tragedy.”

The victims, through the group are demanding for “an Order for the payment of Exemplary/Aggravated Damages against the defendants jointly and severally in the sum of N3, 000,000,000.00 (Three Billion Naira). “

Also an “order of Special Damages against the Defendants, jointly and severally, in the sum of N15, 000,000.00 (Fifteen Million Naira).

“an order directing the defendants to pay the claimants jointly and severally the sum of One Billion, Two Hundred Million Naira (N1,200,000,000) as general damages to alleviate the unqualifiable physical, emotional, psychological trauma and agony the claimants have suffered following the pipeline fire explosions, owing to deliberate and/or negligent acts of the Defendant.”