CSOs Ask Buhari To Obey Court Order Reinstating Araraume As Chairman Of NNPCL

Civil rights advocacy groups made up of ten credible organisations under the aegis of HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA, (HURIWA), on Monday, backed the reinstatement of Senator Ifeanyi Araraume as the non-executive Chairman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL). They spoke on the platform of HURIWA at a press briefing in Abuja.

HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said President Muhammadu Buhari must comply with the order of Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja which reinstated Araraume and set aside all decisions and resolutions of the Board of the NNPCL made in the absence of Araraume from 17th January 2022 till date.

The group further stated that the sum of five billion naira awarded by the court as damages for Araraume’s wrongful removal must be swiftly paid because going by Section 63 (3) of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 and Section 288 of Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020, the Senator cannot be removed in the manner he was removed by the President on January 17, 2022.

HURIWA carpeted the Presidency for saying that the judgment of the court on the reinstatement of Araraume would be challenged by the NNPC after Justice Ekwo held that President Buhari acted ultra vires of his powers.

It said Justice Ekwo held that the president’s decision to remove Araraume was wrongful, illegal, null, and void.

Buhari had in January 2022 dropped Araraume as NNPC Board Chairman, a few months after he announced him as the company’s chairman in September 2021. The President in his U-turn, appointed Senator Margrey Chuba-Okadigbo, wife of the late former President of the Senate, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, to replace Araraume and to represent the South-East.

However, Araraume approached the court to declare his removal illegal not after the NNPC used his name to register NNPCL as a director and simultaneously as Board Chairman and that such brazen act cannot stand in the face of the law.

The court, last week, ruled in favour of Araraume and reinstated him because President Buhari’s action was grossly unconstitutional.

Aside that the Presidency has said that the reinstatement would be challenged in court, some mushroom civil society groups sponsored by persons angry by the reinstatement of Araraume started a smear campaign against Araraume and hinted on a protest against the judgment in Abuja next week.

HURIWA’s Onwubiko said, ““The attempt to make the victory of Araraume to appear like he is fighting President Buhari is wrong. Why should Araraume not seek legal redress when his fundamental right to fair hearing under section 36(5) of the constitution was breached?

“We condemn any form of procured attack by fake civil society groups targeting the court judgment and condemn the futile time-wasting exercise by government to head to Appeal Court without first complying with the judgment which is binding and the enrolled order already served on the parties by the litigant/plaintiff (in this case Araraume).

“We must state here that the NNPCL Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, has no hand in all of these because the decision of President Buhari is political and never followed prescribed steps by CAMA. So NNPC’s CEO is not funding these misplaced attacks but someone within the new NNPCL who has lost out because of the well considered judgment is the one buying phantom and amorphous groups to attack the judgment and the plaintiffs.”

The coalition reminded President Muhammadu Buhari of the primacy of RULE OF LAW without which any nation deteriorates in standards of governsnce and nosedive ibto the abyss of anarchy and doom. The truth as made abundantly clear by law scholars is that the principle of  Rule of Law is a fundamental pillar of any democratic society. It ensures that all citizens, including those in positions of power, are held accountable for their actions and that justice is administered fairly and impartially. Nigeria, like any other democratic country, must uphold the Rule of Law to ensure the protection of its citizens’ rights and freedoms.”

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