Implication of Court Ruling on Deep Seaport, Escravos

The proposed ancillary Deep Seaport, which is an integral part of Delta Industrial Gas City, Ugborodo, Warri South-West Local Government Area, Delta has equally generated huge controversy like the Delta Industrial Gas City, over whose community (ies) has the land on which the project is sited.

But for extreme caution and strong state application of ‘discretion’, naming of both the Deep Seaport and the $ 16 billion Ogidigben Export Processing Zone cum Delta  Industrial Gas City would have instigated fresh hostilities between Ijaws and Itsekiris of Warri South-West Local Government Area as a result of land ownership claim of the projects’ site by leaders of both ethnic Nationalities. It must be noted that their arguments delayed the formal Ground Breaking Ceremony of the twin projects by former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

Even when it seems as if the controversy surrounding the performance of the Ground Breaking Ceremony by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan were over, key ethnic and political stakeholders, particularly from Itsekiri expressed strong reservation when Dr. Goodluck Jonathan and the former Petroleum Minister, Mrs. Allison Deizani Maduekwe performed the ceremony by pronouncing one of the projects to be Deep Seaport, Gbaramatu.

This led to speculations that the Itsekiri Nation was only praying for Dr. Jonathan to exit power before they would head to court and challenge the naming of the project. Though legal fireworks is just about to commence on the naming of the project vis-à-vis the true owner of the land on which the project is situated, the Federal High Court sitting in Warri in a Ruling on an Interlocutory injunction sought by five Ugborodo sons, declared that all parties in the suit should maintain the status quo ante bellum, stating that the Deep Seaport project has not been named after any community.

The position of the court, which is preliminary to the commencement of substantive hearing on the heavily controversial suit implies that the statements made on the day of the Ground Breaking Ceremony by both the former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan and immediate past Petroleum Minister, Mrs. Allison Deizani Maduekwe, wherein they called the project Deep Seaport, Gbaramatu were merely ‘discretional’ or ‘ethno-political’ and not backed by any law.

Editor-In-Chief

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