A federal high court sitting in Abuja on Tuesday nullified the removal of Ifeanyi Ararume as a non-executive chairman of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.
President Muhammadu Buhari had appointed Araume as board chairman of the corporation in September 2021, but he was later sacked on January 17, 2023.
Ararume was later replaced with Margaret Chuba Okadigbo.
Unsatisfied Ararume dragged President Buhari before the court praying it to declare his removal as the NNPCL chief illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional and that it was a total breach of CAMA law under which the NNPCL was incorporated.
He further prayed the court to issue an order to return him to office and also demanded N100 billion as compensation for the damages he suffered nationally and internationally
The presiding Judge, Inyang Ekwo, in his ruling on Tuesday, awarded N5 billion as damages in favour of the former senator representing Imo north.
The court ordered that Ararume be reinstated as non-executive chairman of the NNPC, with all rights and privileges due to him.
The court also set aside all decisions made by the board after the removal of Ararume since January 2022 till date.
Justice Ekwo 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 the NNPCL and that such an act could not stand in the face of the law.