A Rivers State High Court headed by Justice Chinwendu Nwogu, has dismissed a N5.74 billion suit filed against the NLNG by an indigenous contractor, Macobarb International Limited.
Macobarb and its chief executive officer, Shedrack Ogboru, had dragged NLNG to court in suit number HC/2013/CS/2022, for breach of contract and accumulated losses.
Delivering judgement on the suit yesterday, Nwogu ruled that the NLNG did not breach its contract with the firm and that the gas company did not unlawfully deny Macobarb payments.
The judge said the work executed by Macobarb did not amount to ‘work done’ as stated in the contract terms except the NLNG approved it as so, and that the provision mandating the person recognized as ‘contract holder’ nominated by the multinational company as the one to authorize any dealings with the contractor did not mean that he alone could act for the NLNG as relied upon by the contractor.
He ruled that the ‘contract holder’ was a mere day to day overseer of the project, and that any official mandated by the NLNG can terminate the contract.
Nwogu also ruled that the contract did not provide for ‘stand-down payment’ and that the NLNG did not cause delays in the execution of the contract as claimed by the contractor.
The judge further ruled that the payment failures by the NLNG that the contractor claimed affected the contract did not amount to an offence or breach of the contract but that the contractor misused the loan he obtained from banks.
Speaking to newsmen outside the court, Macobarb chief executive officer, Ogbaru, said following the decision of the court, the fate of indigenous contractors in Nigerian courts is doomed.
He alleged that the judge abandoned the crux of the matter and the terms of the contract to deny Macobarb the claims, saying that he felt he presented tight case to the court to show that the NLNG breached terms of payments and that the breaches caused slowdown of the execution of the contract, but regretted that the judge did not agree with any of his arguments.
Ogboru, who stated that many indigenous contractors have died as a result of injustices in the hands of the oil majors, said only abroad do communities and local contractors get some form of justice, never in Nigeria.
