Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja has reinstated Ifeanyi Ararume as the non-executive Chairman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
The court also nullified and set aside all decisions and resolutions of the Board of the NNPCL made in the absence of Ararume from 17th January 2022 till date.
The court further awarded the sum of 5 billion naira in favour of Ararume as damages for his wrongful removal and interruption of the term of office as the non-executive chairman of the NNPCL.
Justice Ekwo ordered that Ararume be immediately restored to office as non-executive Chairman of the NNPCL.
Ararume had sued President Muhammadu Buhari, praying the court to declare his removal as NNPC Chief, illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional and that it is a total breach of the CAMA law under which NNPCL was incorporated. Aside from asking the court to issue an order to return him to office, he also demanded the sum of N100 billion as compensation for damages he suffered following his removal by President Buhari.
The judge held that President 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.
