A Port Harcourt-based company, the Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals Limited, has faulted claims by a community leader in Eleme Local Council of Rivers State, one Johnson Emere Mba-Ngei, that a court order has retrained the firm from further operating in the environment.
However, a copy of the High Court order in Port Harcourt in Suit No: FHC/PH/CS/23/2024, made available to The Guardian, yesterday, by Mba-Ige rather urged Indorama to stop indulging in production, which leads to pollution of the environments, water and farms.
Mba-Ige, who claimed to be the leader of the Alliance for the Defence Of Eleme, in a statement, stated that Eleme has long been a victim of environmental pollution, with various industries contributing to the degradation of the ecosystem, adding that Indorama is not exempted.
He vowed to defend environmental injustice and ensure a brighter future for the forthcoming generations in Eleme. However, responding to the statement, Head of Corporate Communications, Indorama-Nigeria, Dr. Jossy Nkwocha, said that the firm’s attention has been drawn to a press statement by one Mba-Ngei, who spuriously asserted that a court has issued an order by which Indorama has been “restrained from further pollution of the land, air and water,” and that the company “has brazenly flouted and disobeyed the authority of the court.”
Nkwocha said that the court order only required Indorama to ensure that its operations do not lead to the pollution of the environment, pending determination of the motion on notice.
He added that Indorama has continued to maintain compliance to all regulatory and statutory requirements governing its business operations.
He said, “Indorama as a responsible and law-abiding corporate body recognizes the need to refrain from commenting on the substance of a subsisting case in court”
He continued, “However , we are constrained to point out that this Johnson Emere Mba Ngei is the Plaintiff in the subsisting Suit No. PHC/1171/2019 (Formerly FHC/PH/CS/61/2018) – JOHNSON EMERE MBA-NGEI & ANOR V. IEPL instituted since 2019, where he is asking the court to declare that his community Alesa in Eleme LGA of Rivers State, is a host community, in order to benefit from the 7.5 percent equity held by the six host communities of Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals Limited.
“It is ironical that this same person who is alleging that his community is being polluted by the operations of Indorama is the same person seeking to have his community included amongst the host communities of Indorama. This in our view is a clear case of forum shopping and should not be encouraged”
The Company’s spokesman added, Mba Ngei having subjected himself to the authority and jurisdiction of the court, it is disheartening that he has now resorted to self-help by attacking Indorama in the press.
“ We will not join him in this ignoble role and we urge the press and general public to discountenance his allegations as being unfounded, fallacious and without any merit whatsoever”
Meanwhile, the Community Leader while reiterating that companies must be held accountable for their deeds, said, he will not allow his community to become a sacrificial zone for profit-driven interests.
