Ethiope West local government chairman, on Nelson Owoso, second from left with his legal counsel at the court of appeal Asaba.
By Clementina Wewele
ASABA/Nigeria: The lingering case between the Ethiope West council and the Pan Ocean Oil Company operating in the local government area has been decided and settled following the judgement of the Appeal court sitting in Asaba in favour of the local government.
It should be recalled that 13 years ago the pan ocean company was dragged to court by the former leadership of the council over the refusal of the company to pay the statutory tenement rate to the council.
Though Pan Ocean was said to have been paying tenement rate to the council till when the council decided to increased the rate which made the pan ocean company stopped paying.
The pan ocean management said they were not supposed to pay such tenement to council on the ground that the pan ocean was a public company.
The council went to the revenue court for justice and judgement was given in the favour of the council while pan ocean was unsatisfied.
The pan ocean company took an appeal to the high court where the first verdict by the revenue court was nullified in favour of the pan ocean which made the council taking an appeal to the appeal court Asaba.
The case which was said to have lingered over the years have been decided by the court of appeal sitting in Asaba delta state and final verdict in favour of the Ethiope West local government council while condemning the judgement of the high court for lack of merit.
