A boardroom disaster that will rock Muhammadu Indimi’s Oriental Power Assets Restricted to its basis is presently brewing within the oil firm, The Witness experiences.
The disaster entails Alhaji Muhammadu Indimi, a prime Nigerian businessmen and chairman of the corporate and his kids over the possession and management of the oil agency, Oriental Power.
Whereas Indimi is the chairman of the oil firm, the kids are board members.
Info reaching this newspaper revealed that Indimi’s kids aren’t pleased with the businessman over the operations of the corporate. The disaster if not correctly managed, might sink the hovering oil agency.
The kids are stated to have accused Indimi of intimidation and coercion, alleging that he pressured them, as board members, to switch their shares within the firm to him.
The dispute revolves round $435 million in dividends, with the corporate reportedly telling a Federal Excessive Courtroom that Indimi purchased out his kids’s stakes for $10 million, successfully nullifying their declare to $43.5 million in unpaid dividends.
This controversy comes simply months after Indimi hosted Vice President Kashim Shettima and several other Nigerian governors in Dubai for the commissioning of his Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel for the Okwok Area—a undertaking anticipated to spice up Nigeria’s crude oil output by 30,000 barrels per day.
In November 2023, two of his daughters, Ameena Indimi Dalhatu and Zara Indimi, each former board members of Oriental Power, filed a lawsuit towards the corporate, alleging they have been unfairly denied their share of $435.1 million in declared dividends from 2016.
They claimed their father intimidated them and different board members into transferring their shares to him, rising his possession from 60% to 99.94%, whereas lowering their particular person stakes to simply 0.6% every.
They insisted they’re collectively entitled to 10% of the corporate’s dividends—round $43.5 million—and accused their father of high-handedness and failing to determine correct company governance buildings.
In a counterclaim, Oriental Power dismissed the allegations, arguing that Indimi legally compensated his kids for his or her shares.
The corporate maintained that every of the eight affected shareholders acquired a mixed $10 million in alternate for his or her stakes—cash which, it claims, Indimi initially gave them as a present.
In accordance with court docket filings, Ameena Indimi, who was then the corporate’s Managing Director, acquired $3 million in her Stanbic IBTC account on July 19, 2016, whereas seven different siblings—together with Zara—have been paid $1 million every in the identical week.
The beneficiaries reportedly embody: Mustafa Indimi, Ahmed Mohammed Indimi, Amina Indimi Fodio, Rahama Yakolo Indimi Babangida, Jibrilla Indimi and Ibrahim Indimi.
Oriental Power offered emails purportedly despatched by Ameena Indimi on Might 22, 2016, wherein she allegedly suggested her father to supply a {financial} incentive to influence shareholders to signal away their dividend rights.
One of many emails reads: “Pricey Baba, in preparation for the board assembly, please discover connected a draft for the switch of all dividend rights from all 5% stakeholders to the principal shareholder. It’s nonetheless a draft, and we are going to get a doc prepared by Thursday morning, Insha Allah. The battle now we have is that, to ensure that this to work, you’ll have to incentivize the shareholders by placing a sweetener on the desk.”
Oriental Power claims that the $10 million payout was this so-called “sweetener” and insists that Indimi shouldn’t be dragged into the lawsuit.
Oriental Power denied allegations that the corporate declared $435 million in dividends in 2016 whereas refusing to reveal how a lot was truly paid out.
The corporate additionally rejected claims that it lacked correct company governance buildings or had acquired warnings from federal tax authorities.
It has requested the Federal Courtroom to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that it has no advantage because the plaintiffs have been already compensated.
Based in 1990, Oriental Power operates three main offshore oil initiatives in Nigeria: OML 115, Ebok Area (OML 67) and Okwok Area (OML 67).
As of October 2023, Indimi’s internet price was estimated at US$500 Million by Forbes. His internet price plummeted as a result of crashing oil costs in addition to the floating of the Naira.