maintained that there has been infringement on the Defandant’s rights to fair hearing. The Court adjudges, report, that the Amnesty without prejudice to the authenticity International report, as produced of the by the Plaintiff, is admissible. iv) That certain facts brought by the Plaintiff have come under a three-year statute bar Argument advanced by the Federal Republic of Nigeria 56. The Federal before 2003 Republic of Nigeria maintained 1990, in 1995, on 25 June 2001 (oil spill in Rukpokwu, Rivers that the facts (oil spill in Ogbodo), State), in June 2005 which occurred on 3 December (oil spill in Oruma, Bayelsa State), on 28 August 2008 and on 2 February 2009 (oil spills in Bodo, Ogoniland), paragraph have 3, come Article under a three-year statute 9 of the 19 Jnauary 2005 bar in line with the new Supplementary Protocol A/SP.1/01/05 which provides : « any action by or against a Community Institution or any member of the Community shall be statute barred after three (3) years from the date when the right of action arose » Argument advanced by the Plaintiff 57. Conversely, the Plaintiff fundamentally flawed, affirmed based that “the on outdated Defendants’ or mistaken arguments are principles of law and cannot be sustained having regard to sound legal reasoning established by the ECOWAS Court’s own jurisprudence, and other national and international legal jurisprudence”. The Plaintiff argued that the position of the Federal Republic of Nigeria conceals experienced the cumulative effect of the various by the Niger Delta region for decades. considerable environmental difference damage between an isolated and the continuous and causes of pollution It stressed that there is a event repeated of pollution occurrence or of of the same event in the same region for years. It further contended that in regard to the facts it is relying on, notably the recent report by Amnesty (2009), the Federal International Republic of Nigeria cannot validly argue that the current events and situation have come under a three-year statute bar. It is the view of 16|Page