Delivering his ruling on the petition, the Court granted the state government leave to effect the eviction of the SPDC and all occupants of the premises to enable the physical Planning Board conduct environmental, health, technical integrity and safety checks on the facility.
Also, the court directed the Commissioner of Police, the Commander of the Joint Task Force, (JTF) to facilitate the enforcement of the eviction order.
However, the SPDC in defiance to this order refused the government entry into the premises to carry out the inspection as required by law.
The Gbarain/Ubie facility was developed by SPDC on a two million square metres of land, (more than half of Lagos Island) in Bayelsa state without a development permit contrary to the provisions of the law and commissioned in 2010 despite subsisting stop work order and notice to discontinue the development without the permit.
