The Federal High Court (FHC) sitting in Akure has upheld the rights of the National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) to sanction oil firms by imposition of fines and appropriate sanctions for pollution.

It will be recalled that NOSDRA under the watch of the immediate past Director-General, Mr Idris Musa approached the court presided over by Hon. Justice T.B Adegoke of Court 1 of the Akure Division FHC to enforce the Nigerian Environmental Statutes by an oil firm, SEPCOL.

In a judgement on October 4, the court granted all the prayers by NOSDRA and Ondo State Ministry of Environment and part of executing their mandates of protecting the environment from oil pollution.

The reliefs sought and granted were that NOSDRA was right to approach the Court for enforcement of full compliance with Environmental Standards.

The FHC ruled that the Receiver Manager of the operating oil firm was held personally liable for the control, management and negligence of the FPSO vessel Trinity Spirit that caused the fire and explosion and Oil Spillage of February 2, 2022.

The sum of N1 million fine was imposed for failure to remediate and clean up satisfactorily while N262. 5 million penalty was imposed as fine for violation of Section.1 26 of NOSDRA Act to be paid by SEPCOL.

SEPCOL should immediately collaborate with NOSDRA to commence the Post Spills Impact Assessment (PSIA) within 14 Days of the Order of Court.

SEPCOL should pay Clean Nigeria Associate (CAN), a consortium of oil spill response teams that responded to the incident their balance of N727,104.28 and $1,609.64

And SEPCOL should pay both the Agency and Ondo State Ministry of Environment the sum of N25 million as costs for instituting the Suit.

In a reaction to the development, immediate past Chief Executive Officer of NOSDRA Musa noted that the verdict was part of the legacies his leadership left behind at the oil spills management agency.

He said that under his watch at NOSDRA, the agency came tops in transparency rankings and successfully prosecuted oil firms that breach environmental laws.

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