After the revocation of his work, visa, and residence permits, the CEO of Seplat Energy Plc, Mr Roger Brown, has been restrained from parading himself as the company’s CEO pending the hearing and determination of a suit filed against him and others by aggrieved stakeholders of the company.
A Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, gave the order following allegations of racism, favouring of expatriate workers, discrimination against Nigerians, and breach of good governance.
The court also restrained the company’s Chairman, Board of Directors, Mr Basil Omiyi, and all the Non-Executive Directors under him, barring them from “continuing to run the affairs of Seplat in an illegal, unfair, prejudicial, and oppressive manner pending the hearing and determination of the petitioner’s motion on notice for an interlocutory injunction.”
The revocation of Brown’s permits is contained in a March 3, 2023 letter to the Board Chairman of Seplat Energy Plc by the Honourable Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, reportedly identified by journalists at the Federal High Court Lagos on Wednesday, where some concerned stakeholders have instituted a legal proceeding against Seplat in this respect.
In a ruling by Justice Chukwuejekwu Aneke of the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, on Wednesday, Brown was shown the way out of the company in a motion ex parte brought by some aggrieved Seplat Energy Plc stakeholders.
The applicants/petitioners in the suit are Moses Igbrude, Sarat Kudaisi, Kenneth Nnabike, Ajani Abidoye, and Robert Ibekwe, while Seplat Energy Plc, Mr Roger Thompson Brown, and Mr Basil Omiyi, were listed as respondents in the suit marked FHC/L/402/2023.
The judge also granted leave to the petitioners/applicants to serve the petition, any order of the court and all other processes to be issued subsequently in the matter on Brown and Omiyi by pasting the same in the premises of Seplat Energy located at Ikoyi, Lagos.
The case has been adjourned until March 23, for a hearing of the pending application.
