President Muhammadu Buhari has reacted to the judgement of a Federal High Court, Abuja, restoring Ifeanyi Ararume as the non-executive Chairman of Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
OsunDaily News recounts that In a judgement on Tuesday, Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo voided Ararume’s sack and declared that the action of the President was arbitrary, unlawful and illegal.
The presiding judge also awarded N5 billion against Buhari and the NNPCL and ordered that the money to be paid to Ararume as damages for the wrongful sack and disruption of his appointment.
Justice Ekwo also ordered that Ararume be immediately restored to office as a non-Executive Chairman of the NNPCL, and declared as null and void all decisions of the Board of Directors of the NNPCL carried out in the absence of Ararume.
The judge 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 NNPCL and that such a brazen act cannot stand in the face of the law.
However, reacting to the court’s verdict on Wednesday, the president said he has taken due notice of the judgment by the court.
President Buhari in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina noted that the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation /Minister for Justice is yet to receive a formal copy of the ruling.
Buhari, in the statement, remarked that he has affirmed that due judicial process will be followed, even though the NNPCL has already taken steps to go on appeal.
Buhari, who called for calm between both parties said “The administration respects the Rule of Law, and nothing will be done outside it to resolve the matter.”
