OPENE, JCA (Delivering the Lead Judgment): The facts of the present case are that on the 12th of January, 1998, there was a crude oil spillage from the defendants/appellant’s Idoho production platform off Eket on the south Eastern Axis of Nigeria’s Atlantic Continental Shelf.
The plaintiffs in the two suits before the Federal High Court are native communities in Ogoni land in the Rivers State and Ikot Abasi in the Akwa Ibom State. As a result of the said crude oil spillage, the 1st set of plaintiffs brought an action for themselves and on behalf of so many communities in Ogoni land as per Suit No. FHC/CA/CS/30/98 against the two defendants who are now the appellants jointly and severally claiming in paragraph 18 of their statement of claim as follows:
“16. Wherefore plaintiffs claim from the defendants jointly and severally for ecological damage and injurious affection as follows:
1. N3,698,524,656.00 being the sum assessed by plaintiffs’ expert chartered valuers in the valuation rep…