The Rivers State High Court in Nigeria has ordered Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) not to terminate GSA Logistics Services Contracts awarded to indigenous contractors from oil-rich communities in the Niger Delta region. This was after the court reaffirmed an order for SPDC to stop the process of terminating the contracts.
Justice I.P.C. Igwe, who presided over the court, said that the company is restrained from stopping or calling off the bidding process for contract number CW502377 already bid for by indigenous Niger Delta companies. This is for the position of logistics support services for government security agencies in their facilities in the region.
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The order was first issued on November 10, 2022, and was reaffirmed on April 20, 2023, based on an application of the claimants’ counsel. The claimants in the suit, Niger Delta Youths for Transparent and Accountability Watch Dog, had approached the court seeking an interim injunction restraining SPDC from terminating the GSA Logistics Services Contract.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Upstream Investment Services, the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission, and the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited are listed as respondents/defendants.
Indigenous contractors handling the GSA Logistics Services Contract are fighting against the SPDC over the supply of patrol speedboats and other logistics materials for the use by security personnel to protect oil facilities in and around oil production and host communities.
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The contractors claim that the SPDC is taking the GSA contracts away from host communities in connivance with NIPEX to re-award the contract to non-indigenous contractors who do not know about the terrain of the Niger Delta. They also allege that some workers in the security department of SPDC and their cohorts in NIPEX are pushing their kinsmen and surrogates to take over the GSA Logistics Services Contracts from indigenous contractors. The court adjourned the substantive case to June 20, 2023.
