A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has restored Senator Ifeanyi Godwin Ararume as non-Executive Chairman of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.
The Court on Tuesday voided the sack of the businessman and set aside the January 17 removal done by president Muhammadu Buhari on the ground that the action of the President was arbitrary, unlawful and illegal.
The judge, Inyang Edem Ekwo awarded N5bn against Buhari and the NNPCL to be paid to Ararume as damages for the wrongful sack and disruption of his appointment.
Immediately, Ekwo ordered that Ararume be restored to office as a non-Executive Chairman of the NNPC, while declaring as null and void all decisions of the company’s Board of Directors carried out in the absence of Ararume.
READ ALSO: Ararume Drags Buhari To Court, Demands N100bn Over ‘Unlawful Removal’ As NNPC Chairman
Ekwo also held that Buhari acted ultra vires 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.
Information Nigeria reports that Ararume had dragged Buhari before the Court praying it to declare his removal as NNPC Chief illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional and that it is a total breach of Companies And Allied Matters Act law under which NNPCL was incorporated.
Apart from asking the court to issue an order to return him to office, Ararume also demanded N100 billion as compensation for the damages he suffered nationally and internationally in the unlawful way and manner his removal was carried out by President Buhari.
