Chairman of SEPLAT Petroleum Development Company, Ambrosie Bryant Chukwueloka Orjiako is in hot soup as the Federal High Court in Abuja has granted the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) application to take over its assets.
The court also ordered the take over of the assets of two of Orjiako’s affiliate companies, Shebah Exploration & Production Company Limited and Allenne Limited.
The court order, issued on August 15th, was accompanied with letters to the Managing Directors of 29 commercial and merchant banks in the country where Mr Orjiako and his allies have accounts.
The order followed an application by Mojisola Owoseni of Lexavier Partners, legal practitioners, legal counsel to AMCON in suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/945/19 against ABC Orjiako, Shebah Exploration & Production Company Limited, with RC No 499348, and Allenne Limited.
In the application, AMCON asked the court to grant Francis Chuka, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, right to exercise its function as Receiver/Manager of Mr. Orjiako’s assets in Nigeria and abroad, including Shebah Exploration & Production Company Limited. Chuka was appointed by AMCON as Receiver/Manager on July 30, 2019, with the mandate to “take possession of and preserve all its assets and undertakings” by Mr Orjiako.
The assets and undertakings included his personal properties at Nos. 10C and 25A Lugard Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos; an oil vessel, MT Trinity Spirit, used as a floating, Production, Storage, and Offloading (FPSO) facility in Ukpokiti Oil Field belonging to Shebah Exploration & Production Company Limited.
The reports of AMCON’s purported move to impound the personal assets of Orjiako and Shebah could cripple efforts to meet the debt obligations. This portends a strong detour from the government’s policy of encouraging direct domestic investment in the real sector and creating a less adversarial relationship between regulators and cooperative commercial debtors.