A Non-Governmental Organisation, Justice Now Coalition has called on the Federal Government to obey the court judgement on the case of wrongful removal of Senator Ifeanyi Araraume as non-executive Chairman of the board of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
In a statement by its National Coordinator, Tony Erha, the group said compliance with the court order would impress on Nigerians the culture of rule of law.
Erha added that it would also save the federal government from engaging in unending legal tussles, which may give wrong signals to foreign investors in the oil and gas sector.
“The Federal Government should take the window of opportunity provided by the Federal High Court judgment to the issue once and for all.
“After all, Senator Godwin Ifeanyi Araraume was a director on the board of NNPCL before he was simultaneously appointed as the non-executive chairman, thus enjoying the privilege of having his name in the company’s records with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
“Araraume remains part of the NNPCL family in the face of the law. All issues settled in his favour in the judgment can be quietly revisited and resolved in ways that there will be no losers at the end of the day”.
He said that the court judgement has opened a window of foreclosing the long legal battle that would emanate from several appeals as well as reduce public attention.
“Araraume is a committed member of the ruling All Progressives Congress. We also understand that he was an appointee of President Muhammadu Buhari, as a federal commissioner at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), where he represented the Southeast zone from 2016-2018, a position he held after he passed rigorous security checks by the Police and the Department of State Services.
“That being the case, we believe that this issue can be resolved in-house in the interest of his party, government, and the nation, so that the NNPCL can be surefooted forthwith in its operations and dealings with the IOCs, whose confidence the new national energy company must enjoy, more than ever before, to thrive”.
He said that the legal option taken by Araraume was a good precedence that would solidify the judicial system and give confidence to judicial pronouncements in the country.
Erha added that all parties involved should not see it as a personal clash as was being insinuated in some quarters.
“Besides, some groups had also erroneously claimed that by reinstating Araraume, the Court had usurped the powers of President Muhammadu Buhari to hire and fire.
”A claim that is clearly not in tandem with the due process of removing a member of the Board of the NNPCL as circumscribed by the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 and other extant laws”.
