Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja, has restored Senator Ifeanyi Ararume as non-Executive Chairman of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
The court decalred as illegal the sack of the businessman and set aside his removal done on January 17, 2023 by President Muhammadu Buhari on the ground that the action of the President was arbitrary, unlawful and illegal.
Justice Ekwo, in a judgment in a suit by Ararume, also awarded N5bn damages against Buhari and NNPCL, to be paid to Ararume as damages for the wrongful sack and disruption of his appointment.
Justice Ekwo ordered that Ararume be immediately restored to office as non-Executive Chairman of the NNPCL.
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 brazen act cannot stand in the face of the law.
Ararume had dragged Buhari before the Court praying it to declare his removal as NNPC Chairman as illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional and that it was a total breach of CAMA law under which NNPCL was incorporated.
Apart from asking the court to issue an order to return him to office, Ararume also demanded N100billion as compensation for the damages he suffered nationally and internationally in the unlawful way and manner his removal was carried out by President Buhari.
LEADERSHIP reports that President Buhari had appointed Senator Margery Okadigbo as NNPCL chairman after the removal of Senator Ararume.
