Marine Ecosystem: Court Reserves Closing Argument on Eko Atlantic City Dredging Suit for May 30, 2024

The case involving the dredging and land reclamation operations in Kuramo Waters is quite complex and has been ongoing for a significant amount of time, as the issues surrounding environmental impact and property damage are the serious concerns raised requiring dispassionate legal interpretation.

This is why the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos will on May 8, 2024, listen to the closing arguments in a case seeking to declare as illegal the ongoing dredging and land reclamation operations of Dredging Environmental Marine and Engineer N.V. employed by Gilbert and Ronald Chagoury in the Kuramo Waters of Victoria Island, an area in contest which has been designated by the Chagoury brothers under the Eko Atlantic Phases II-VI.

The Plaintiff in the suit, in addition to seeking damages for negligent dredging damage and devaluation to property is also seeking a restoration of the Kuramo Waters to its original condition under the Court’s supervision. The plaintiff’s claims highlight the potential consequences of these activities on the local ecosystem and community.

The environmental part of the claim is based on the paramount importance of the Kuramo Waters as a natural overflow and drain to-the Atlantic Ocean of Five Cowrie Creek and Victoria Island respectively during the rainy season and when severe flooding occurs.

The plaintiff aver that the ongoing dredging operations are aimed at sealing up the Kuramo Waters in a bid to create even more land for the Chagoury brothers’ Eko Atlantic project. The claim is that the consequences of these phases of land reclamation will eradicate the efficacy of the Kuramo Waters, a body of water without which Victoria Island will become subjected to heavy floods and gradually go under water.

Expert evidence from an internationally renowned Oceanographer based in Washington have been adduced in the suit to the effect that the Kuramo Waters has existed as a natural body of water serving Victoria Island as long as Lagos has existed.

The consequences of the ongoing dredging which has been intensified by the Belgian dredger owners since June 2023 to date is to destroy property values, investments and livelihoods of Nigerian nationals along the Kuramo waters shoreline and beyond. Especially now at a time of economic hardship in the country. The suit number is FHC/L/CS/1329/2015, Mondinvest Limited V . M.V. Breughel 2. Master of the M. V. Breughel 3. Dredging Environmental Marine Engineering N.V. (Belgium) and claims damages for negligent, unlawful and illegal dredging by the Defendants, a globally recognised dredger operator.

At the resumed sitting on Tuesday, February 20, 2024, the Plaintiff’s counsel. Mr Olumide Aju SAN concluded his cross-examination of the defence Expert witness Prof. Lucian Chukwu. Upon the completion of the cross-examination,the presiding Judge, Honourable Justìce Daniel Emeka Osiagor then went on to reserve May 8, 2024, for the closing arguments. It will be remembered that Mondinvest Limited the Plaintiff has been in court for over 8 years with Defendants.

In earlier proceedings before Justice Jude Dagat of the Federal High Court Lagos who previously adjudicating the matter, Honourable Justìce Dagat in a judgment in March 2016, had refused an application for the suit’s dismissal filed by the dredger’s owners. He held that the plaintiff, Mondinvest Limited, had a good cause of action against the dredger owners.