Court Orders Ibeto To Refund Dozzy Oil N3.2bn Over Failed Land Deal

A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has ordered the business mogul, Chief Cletus Ibeto to refund the sum of N3.295 billion indigenous oil firm, Dozzy Oil and Gas Limited, being the sum received for the failed land transaction.

This is as the court affirmed Ibeto’s right to Statutory Right of Occupancy over the property within Reclamation Road Layout at Bundu Ama Community with a cumulative area of 22.6536 hectares, the subject of a Deed of Sub-lease dated 19th March, 2010 and registered as No. 47 at Page 47 in Volume 280 of the Lands Registry office in Port Harcourt.

Delivering judgement in a suit brought against Dozzy Oil and Gas Limited and SunGreen Oil and Gas Limited (a sister company to Dozzy Oil and Gas Limited), Hon. Justice  Adolphus Enebeli, maintained that the $3,000,000 given to Ibeto by the indigenous oil company was not given as part of the payment for the purchase of the land.

Enebeli affirmed the validity of the Deed of Assignment registered as No. 37 at Page 37 in Volume 359 of the Lands Registry office in Port Harcourt executed between Nigeria Technical Company Limited (NITECO) and Sungreen Oil and Gas Limited, a subsidiary of Dozzy.

The judge also granted an injunction restraining Cletus Ibeto and his group of companies, their servants, agents and privies from continuing to lay claim over Sungreen Oil and Gas Limited land registered as No. 37 at Page 37 in Volume 359 of the Lands Registry office in Port Harcourt measuring an area approximately 122 hectares situate at Niteco Shipyard layout, Reclamation Phase II, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

The court also granted an injunction restraining Dozzy Oil and Gas from trespassing into the piece of land measuring 22.6536 hectares, which forms part of the piece and parcel of land registered as No. 43 at Page 43 in Volume 6 of the Lands Registry office in Port Harcourt.