crude gas explorations have done and are still doing to the Niger Delta. The Plaintiffs
further state that the Defendant has failed or neglected to reduce the frequent
incidences of crude oil spills and gas flaring that have killed or incurred health
hazards to thousands of people in the Niger Delta.
That the above acts complained of constitute a violation of their fundamental human,
civil, social and economic right of ownership, use and benefit of the natural resources
in their ancestral land. The Defendant has overlooked the apparent inhuman
suffering and recurrent deaths occasioned by ill-health caused by severe damage to
the environment in the oil producing communities. That unless the Defendant is
restrained from renewing the already expired oil mining blocs exploration licenses,
the people of the Niger Delta shall continue to suffer from these crude oil exploration
activities.
Whereupon the Plaintiffs filed this application seeking for the following orders:
i) A DECLARATION: that the unilateral allocation of Crude Oil Blocs to private
Nigerians and their firms by the Federal Government of Nigeria in total disregard to the
people of the communities in whose lands the crude oil is located is unlawful and same
violates their Fundament Rights as entrenched in Article 21, 22 & 24 of the African
Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR); Article 1 (1-3) of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); and Article 1 (1-3) & 11 of the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
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