President Muhammadu Buharu has been ordered to pay the sum of N5 million to Senator Ifeanyi Ararume, the sacked non-executive Chairman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
The order was issued by the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Tuesday, who also directed that Ararume should be restored as the Chairman.
Recall that Ararume was removed by Buhari on January 17, 2023.
Following his removal, the former NNPCL chairman sued President Buhari, asking the court to void his removal, which he described as unlawful, unconstitutional and a total breach of CAMA law under which the NNPCL was incorporated.
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The embattled NNPCL boss also prayed the court to give an order for the sum of N100 billion to be paid to him as compensation for the damages he suffered nationally and internationally.
In his judgement on Tuesday, Justice Inyang Ekwo voided Ararume’s sacking and awarded N5bn as damages against Buhari and the NNPCL, to be paid for the disruption of Ararume’s appointment on the grounds that the action of the President was arbitrary, unlawful and illegal.
The justice ordered that Ararume be immediately restored to office as the non-executive chairman of the NNPCL.
The judge also declared as null and void all decisions of the Board of Directors of the NNPCL carried out in the absence of Ararume.
Justice Ekwo held that Buhari acted ultra vires, wrongful, illegal, null and void in the ways and manners Ararume was sacked after using his name to register the NNPCL and that such an act could not stand in the face of the law.