Seplat Energy Plc, one of Nigeria’s leading indigenous oil and gas exploration and production companies, will hold its Annual General Meeting (AGM) as scheduled on May 10, 2023.
This follows a final and binding judgment by an Abuja Federal High Court delivered on May 9, 2023, ordering the company to proceed with the AGM.
The judgment was delivered by Justice A.R. Mohammed J in Suit number FHC/ABJ/PET/7/2023 – Akinnifesi&Adelaja V. Seplat Energy Plc – and “further restrains any current or former directors, shareholders, and officers of the Company from canceling or postponing the AGM as announced to the public”.
In compliance with the Law and the Judgment, the AGM will hold on May 10, 2023, at 11:00 am, as ordered by the Federal High Court of Nigeria.
Seplat’s Board Chairman, Basil Omiyi (CON), assured shareholders that the company is fully committed to compliance with the court’s judgment. He explained that the announcement on the AGM was made pursuant to Rule 17.10 of the Rulebook of the Nigerian Exchange, 2015 (Issuer’s Rule).
The AGM had faced a possible setback when some minority shareholders filed a suit, Boniface Okezie V. Seplat Energy Plc (FHC/ABJ/PET/8/2023), seeking to restrain the company from holding the AGM on May 10, 2023.
The suit was adjourned by the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja to May 31, 2023, following an order that all the respondents should be served before the matter could be taken.
Seplat’s Board Chairman, Mr. Basil Omiyi, had refuted all allegations made in the petitions, describing them as part of an orchestrated attempt to damage the company in response to its efforts to improve corporate governance by eliminating related party transactions and implementing other governance initiatives.
The suit before Justice Inyang Ekwo was brought by Boniface Okezie, Bon. Bright Nwabuogwu, John Isesele, Okonkwo Timothy, and Augustine Ezechukwu (Petitioners/Applicants) against Seplat Energy PLC; company CEO, Mr. Roger Brown; Board Chairman, Mr. Basil Omiyi; as well as Independent Non-Executive Directors of the company, Dr. Charles Okeahialam, Prof. Fabian Ajogwu, Rabiu Bello, Mrs. BashiratOdenewu, Emma Fitzgerald; Company Secretary/Legal Adviser, Mrs. Edith Onwuchekwa, and the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
During the hearing, each of the counsel for the respondents opposed the attempt by the petitioners to get the court to halt the AGM. The court eventually ruled that the parties should not tamper with the rest until issues are resolved.
