Court orders reinstatement of Ararume as NNPCL Board Chairman

A Federal High Court in Abuja has issued a judgement restoring Senator Ifeanyi Godwin Ararume as non-Executive Chairman of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited NNPCL, voiding the appointment of Senator Margret Chuba Okadigbo by outgoing President Mohammadu Buhari in January 2022.

EnergyDay gathered that the Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo in his judgement voided the sack of Ararume and set aside the removal done on January 17, 2023, by President Buhari, revealing that the action of the outgoing President was arbitrary, unlawful and illegal.

The Court’s judgment in the suit by Ararume awarded N5bn against Buhari and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) expected to be paid to the plaintiff as damages for the wrongful sack and disruption of his appointment.

Justice Ekwo ordered that Ararume be immediately reinstated as the non-Executive Chairman of the NNPCL Board.

The Judge also declared as null and void all decisions of the Board of Directors of the NNPCL carried out in the absence of Ararume.

Justice Ekwo held that Buhari acted ultra vires, wrongful, illegal, null and void in the ways and manners Ararume was sacked after using his name to register NNPCL and that such a brazen act cannot stand in the face of the law.

Ararume had dragged Buhari before the Court asking it to declare his removal as NNPC Chief illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional and that it is a total breach of CAMA law under which NNPCL was incorporated.

The Presidency is yet to respond to the Court order as of the period of filing this report.

Efforts to reach Femi Adesina , Senior Special Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President

(Media and Publicity) was not connecting.

President Muhammadu Buhari in January 5, 2022, in accordance with the power vested in him under Section 59(2) of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, approved the appointment of Senator Margret Chuba Okadigbo (South East), Chairman of the NNPCL Board.