The facts of the case put briefly is that as a result of the defendant’s negligence, oil spillage occurred and escaped from the defendant’s tank in Bonny terminal into the plaintiffs creek and caused extensive damage to both fish, marine lives and plaintiffs fishing nets. He complained to the defendant and they went on joint inspection to the affected area and both of them agreed to settle. The defendant offered N22,000.00 as compensation which the plaintiff accepted but he was not paid. He then consulted PW2 and instructed him to produce a report of the damage caused as a result of the silage. From the report produced the claim was increased to N21,210.645.

DW1 gave evidence on behalf of the defendant to the effect that the defendant was not negligent and that it took all reasonable care to check the proceed to limit and contain the spill and recovered some spills. The remnants of the spill were later cleared.

The Amanyababo filed a suit in which he claimed N250,000.00 and included the area claimed by the plaintiff. In paragraph 11 of the Statement of defence, the defendant pleaded thus:-