Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja has reinstated Ifeanyi Ararume as the non-executive Chairman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL).
In a ruling delivered today April 18, the judge 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.
Ararume had filed the lawsuit against President Buhari after he was removed as one of the NNPC Chiefs. He asked the court to declare his removal as 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 court awarded the sum of 5 billion naira in favor of Ararume as damages for his wrongful removal and interruption of the term of office as the non-executive chairman of the NNPCL.
The judge further 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.
