The Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt has set aside the three-month sentence imposed on the Managing Director of the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, Osagie Okunbor, and two other senior officers of the company for contempt, the oil major said on Sunday.

The SPDC said in a statement that the appellate court gave the ruling on November 5, following an appeal of the committal order filed by the company.

The PUNCH reported on October 10, 2018 that a High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, sentenced the three Shell officials to three months’ imprisonment with hard labour for contempt.

The SPDC noted on Sunday that the High Court had on October 9, 2018, ordered Osagie; SPDC Company Secretary, Nike Oyinlola; and the Managing Counsel for Litigation, Sub-Sahara Africa, Keibi Atemie, to be committed to prison for disobeying a 2008 judgement of the High Court to forfeit the land on which the Bonny Oil Export Terminal is built.

But the SPDC, in a statement after the committal order, said the company had not disobeyed any court order and had appealed the conviction. – Punch

– Dec. 10, 2018 @ 8:39 GMT |