Breath of Fresh Air Pervades Seplat
Reviews the striking out of the suit filed by aggrieved shareholders of Seplat, and the vacation of their ex-parte order restraining officials of the company from performing their duties by the Court of Appeal
The crisis rocking Seplat Energy Plc is beginning to ease off following the withdrawal of the suit filed at the Federal High Court in Lagos by aggrieved shareholders of the company against the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Roger Brown, and the Chairman, Board of Directors, Mr. Basil Omiyi, over alleged racism.
The aggrieved stakeholders are: Moses Igbrude, Sarat Kudaisi, Kenneth Nnabike, Ajani Abidoye, and Robert Ibekwe. They filed a suit marked FHC/L/402/2023 against the company, Brown and Omiyi, asking the court for an order of mandatory injunction restraining them from parading themselves as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Seplat or work for the company in any other capacity.
They equally sought an order restraining the company’s Board Chairman from retaining Brown as the CEO of Seplat or retaining his services for the company in any capacity.
The plaintiffs’ allegations against Brown was that he was running the affairs of the company in an illegal, unfairly prejudicial and oppressive manner.
They also sought orders restraining the Independent Non-Executive Directors of the company from allegedly running its affairs unfairly.
The orders were granted by the court on March 8, 2023 by Justice Chukwuejekwu Aneke.
However, upon the hearing of the argument of the respective counsel to Seplat and its Directors as to why the interim application should not have been granted and why it is necessary for it to be set aside, on April 6, 2023, Justice Aneke vacated the order.
The court thereafter adjourned the matter to May 16, 2023, for hearing of the petitioners’ motion on notice seeking to join certain Independent Non-Executive Directors of Seplat as parties to the suit.
However, at the resumed hearing of the substantive last Tuesday, counsel to the petitioners, Mr. Ayodele Arotiowa informed the court that his clients have filed notice to withdraw the suit, adding that they were no longer willing to continue with the case.
Addressing the court, Seplat’s counsel, Mr. Uzoma Azikiwe (SAN), told the court that his client filed an appeal challenging the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the suit and urged the court to suspend all proceedings pending determination of the appeal.
On his part, counsel to Seplat’s CEO, Mr. Kayode Adesina, informed the court that the notice of withdrawal filed by the petitioners was served on him in court, after the appeal challenging the jurisdiction of the court had been entered at the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division.
He submitted that the petitioners filed their notice of discountenance on April 18, 2023, but decided to serve the respondents in court.
While not opposing the notice of discontinuance, he asked the court to award the sum of N10 million as cost against the petitioners for the delay in serving the notice of discontinuance, which counsel to the petitioners blamed on the court’s bailiff.
Consequently, in his ruling, Justice Aneke struck out the suit and ordered the petitioners to pay N1 million to the second and third respondents.
Before then, the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal had stayed the enforcement of an order made by Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja suspending the management of Seplat Energy Plc from office.
Those suspended were the company’s CEO, Brown, and Board Chairman, Omiyi.
Besides, the court ordered the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to immediately appoint suitable persons to run the affairs of the company, pending the determination of the motion on notice filed by the applicants.
Others suspended pending the determination of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction filed by some aggrieved shareholders of the company, were some independent members of the Board of Directors.
Dissatisfied, Seplat Energy in its notice of appeal filed at the Court of Appeal by its team of lawyers led my Mr. D.D Dodo, SAN, Bode Olanipekun SAN and Audu Anuga SAN, urged the appellate court to set aside the interim order.
In a further affidavit in support of motion ex-parte, deposed to by Adoga Moses, a Litigation Clerk, in the employment of Wole Olanipekun & Co, the appellant stated that out of 588,444,561 issued shares of the appellant/ applicant, the plaintiffs at the lower court have cumulative shares of 131 units.
In breaking it down, the deponent stated that the 1st plaintiff has 100 units of shares while the 2nd and 3rd plaintiffs have 31 and 30 units respectively.
According to him, “he cumulative percentage shareholding of the plaintiffs who have obtained disruptive orders against the applicant amounts to 0.00002736 per cent.