Seplat says AGM will hold despite court case
Seplat Energy Plc, an energy firm in Nigeria, has said its annual general meeting will go ahead as planned next month despite a court case it described as “part of an orchestrated attempt to damage the company”
The firm announced in a statement on Saturday that the Federal High Court in Abuja had struck out the criminal charge brought by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) against it and some of its officers.
It said the court fully discharged all named defendants, adding that the charge had earlier been withdrawn by the NIS on April 20 and was in relation to the immigration status of Mr Roger Brown, the company’s CEO, and the withdrawal of his immigration visa by the ministry of interior.
According to the statement, 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,” Seplat said.
It said the new case also included a request to restrain the company from holding its AGM on May 10, 2023.
The firm said 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.
It said: “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.”
