BY Bunmi Aduloju
Basil Omiyi, board chairman of Seplat Energy Plc, has assured that the company will hold its scheduled annual general meeting (AGM) tomorrow.
In a statement on Tuesday, the board chairman said the meeting will take place in compliance with the final and binding judgment of a federal high court in Abuja.
“An Abuja federal high court today (May 9, 2023) delivered a final and binding judgment, ordering Seplat Energy Plc to hold its scheduled annual general meeting (AGM),” he said.
He said the judgment, delivered by A.R. Mohammed, the presiding judge, in suit number FHC/ABJ/PET/7/2023 (Akinnifesi and Adelaja versus Seplat Energy Plc), also restrained any “current or former directors, shareholders, and officers of the company from canceling or postponing the AGM as announced to the public”.
Omiyi said in due compliance with the law and the judgement, Seplat’s AGM “will hold on May 10, 2023 at 11:00 am”.
Meanwhile, in suit number (FHC/ABJ/PET/8/2023), petitioners had brought a separate case before a federal high court in Abuja, requesting to restrain the company from holding its AGM on the aforementioned date.
The suit, brought before Inyang Ekwo, the presiding judge, was instituted by Boniface Okezie, Bright Nwabuogwu, John Isesele, Okonkwo Timothy, and Augustine Ezechukwu (petitioners).
The defendants are Seplat Energy Plc; Roger Brown, the company’s chief executive officer (CEO); Basil Omiyi, the board chairman; independent non-executive directors: Charles Okeahialam, Fabian Ajogwu, Rabiu Bello, Bashirat Odenewu, and Emma Fitzgerald; Edith Onwuchekwa, the company’s secretary/legal adviser; and the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
However, the court did not accede to the request of the petitioners to grant ex parte interim orders restraining the company from holding its AGM.
The petition was adjourned to May 31, 2023.
Ekwo had ruled that the “parties are hereby ordered not to tamper with the rest until issues are resolved.”
In an earlier statement signed by Omiyi, the company refuted all allegations made in the petitions, saying they have “almost identical wording to a separate petition filed at a federal high court in Lagos”.
The energy firm described the lawsuits as “clearly being 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”.
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