Court to hear contempt proceeding on Egina FPSO suit March 27

A Federal High Court, Lagos, yesterday, adjourned till March 27, 2015, to hear the contempt proceedings initiated against Samsung Heavy Industry Nigeria Limited and Total Upstream Nigeria Ltd, over their alleged disobedience of an order of court.

The court had ordered parties to maintain status-quo in the controversial storage and offloading unit FPSO in Egina Field within OML 130 contract.
Defendants in the suit are Attorney General of the Federation; National Petroleum Investment Management Services, NPIMS; Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board, CDMB and Samsung Heavy Industry and Total Upstream.

The plaintiff in the suit, Mr. John Owubokiri, a lawyer is asking the court to declare that the award of the contract to Samsung Heavy Industry Nigeria  for the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of the Egina FPSO is unlawful, tainted by irregularities in that NPIMS, CDMB and Total Upstream Nigeria ignored all extant laws, regulations, directives, and guidelines guiding such awards.

Justice Okon Abang, had last year, ordered the defendants to “maintain status quo ante bellum as per the plaintiff’s claims before the court pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice dated November 19, 2014.”

But the plaintiff had complained that work was still on-going on the contact, despite the clear court orders.
The trial judge, also, said it will hear the preliminary objection filed by the defendants, challenging the jurisdiction of the court to hear the matter.

The plaintiff is asking the court to declare that the award of the contract to Samsung Heavy Industry Nigeria for the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of Egina FPSO contrary to extant laws, regulations, directives, guidelines and laid down procedure is irregular, null and void and ought to be set aside.

“An order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendants from executing, carrying out or taking any further steps pursuant to the award of the contract for the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of the Egina FPSO.

“A mandatory order compelling NPIMS and CDMB, to reopen the process of the award for the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of the Egina FPSO in accordance with the extant laws, regulations, directives, guidelines and laid down procedures as contained inter alia in the public procurement Act, NNPC Act, and the guidelines of NPIMS.”