A Federal High Court in Lagos has fixed March 29 for the hearing of a suit seeking the revocation of OPL 245 awarded to oil giants Shell and Eni.

In April 2018, Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) had filed an ex-parte motion, seeking an order for Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation (AGF) to revoke the licence on grounds that it was awarded illegally.

Giving details of the court’s proceeding in a statement on Wednesday, Lanre Suraju, executive director of HEDA, said the group was represented in court by R.A.O Adegoke and Aishat Odekunle.

Both counsels according to him, asked the court to grant its request to probe into processes involving the license which HEDA said were flawed.

Adegoke said that all parties had been served their processes, which had prompted “preliminary objections” from the defendants.

“The Plaintiff equally filed its reply to all, hence, counsel to the defendant applied for a short date for the hearing of the matter,” the statement read.

“O. Ojo and M. Nwodo stood for the 2nd Defendant, Abiodun Rufai for the 3rd Defendant and E. A. Ejiga, (Miss) for the 4th Defendant.

“The 2nd Defendant objected and rather requested a date for the hearing of the preliminary objections filed by the 2nd -4th Defendants which challenge the jurisdiction of the court and this was seconded by the other defendants.

“Consequently, the court adjourned to the 29th day of March 2019 for the hearing of the preliminary objections of all the defendants after which it will then give its ruling and decide whether there is a need to hear the Plaintiff’s application or not.”

OPL 245 is one of the largest oil blocks in Nigeria.