Lekoil Nigeria, in which Lekoil Cayman, a Cayman Islands-registered AIM-listed holding company holds a 40% equity holding, says a number of its directors and senior executives have resigned with immediate effect from the board of Lekoil Cayman.
Oluwafisayo Ayodele, Senior Executive, Media & Communication, Caritas Communications Limited, said in a statement that Aisha Muhammed-Oyebode, Chair of Lekoil Nigeria, has resigned as a non-executive director of Lekoil Cayman.
Others who have also resigned their board appointment include Lekan Akinyanmi, CEO of Lekoil Nigeria; and Gloria Iroegbunam, Company Secretary of Lekoil Nigeria.
All three will, however, remain in their current positions at Lekoil Nigeria.
According to Ayodele, the resignations have been prompted by the recent behaviour and actions of theboard of Lekoil Cayman. In particular, Mr. Akinyanmi vigorously disputes his unilateral termination as CEO of Lekoil Cayman and all of the statements made by Lekoil Cayman in connection with his employment contract and the loan agreement between him and Lekoil Cayman.
Mrs Muhammed-Oyebode said, “The board and management of Lekoil Nigeria remains committed to its vision of developing the company’s assets and we wish to assure our numerous stakeholders, especially our shareholders, partners and colleagues, that the strategic national assets under our purview will be protected by all legitimate means available to us.
“This in turn will ensure the restoration of value for all shareholders, both in Lekoil Nigeria and Lekoil Cayman.
“The Board of Directors of Lekoil Cayman continue to show a blatant disregard for the Shareholder Agreement, a legally binding agreement which governs the relationship between Lekoil Cayman and Lekoil Nigeria and which was implemented at the time of Lekoil Cayman’s listing to meet the requirements in Nigerian law in respect of control of indigenous strategic assets.
“The continuous breaches of due process and corporate governance by the board of Lekoil Cayman have left us with no other option but to resign collectively from the Board of Lekoil Cayman.
“Meanwhile, Lekoil Nigeria has separately written to Lekoil Limited’s advisers and to the AIM authorities requesting them to investigate the behaviour of the current Board of Lekoil Limited.”
