The Federal High Court in Abuja today has formally struck out the criminal charge brought by the Nigeria Immigration Service against Seplat Energy and some of its Officers, according to the company, the court fully discharged all named defendants.
This was made available in a statement by Mr. Basil Omiyi,
Independent Chairman, on behalf of the entire Board of Seplat Energy PLC.
The charge had earlier been withdrawn by the Nigerian
Immigration Service on the 20th April (RNS Number : 9385W) and was in relation
to the immigration status of Mr. Roger Brown and the withdrawal of his
immigration visa by the Ministry of Interior.
In addition, a new separate legal case, Boniface Okezie
& 4 ors V. Seplat & 9 ors (Suit No. FHC/ABJ/PET/8/2023), was brought
before the Federal High Court in Abuja. The petition as advised by independent
legal advisors, was an unlawful duplication of the Petition already before the
Federal High Court in Lagos (Suit No. FHC/L/CP/402/2023 – Moses A. Igbrude
& 4 ors v. Seplat Energy Plc & 2 ors) , where the Court recently
vacated the Interim Orders against the Chief Executive Officer and adjourned
the case to 16 May 2023 - please refer to the Company’s Announcements of 10
March 2023 and 6 April 2023.) The new case also included a request to restrain
the Company from holding its Annual General Meeting on 10 May 2023.
The Federal High Court did not accede to the request of
Petitioners to grant ex parte Interim Orders restraining the Company from
holding its AGM.
The petition has been adjourned to 31 May 2023. As such, the
Company’s AGM will go ahead as planned on 10 May 2023.
Seplat Energy refutes all allegations made in these
petitions, which, given their almost identical wording, are clearly 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.
This announcement is made pursuant to Rule 17.10 of the
Rulebook of the Nigerian Exchange, 2015 (Issuer’s Rule).
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