Oil billionaire and Oriental Energy Resources founder, Muhammadu Indimi, has taken a fresh step in the bitter legal battle involving his twin daughters over a staggering $43.51 million dividend judgment.
Indimi has applied to join the appeal challenging the Federal High Court judgment that ordered Oriental Energy to pay his daughters, Zara and Ameena Indimi, the huge sum.
The latest move has added a fresh twist to the high-profile dispute, which centres on the ownership and dividend rights of the billionaire’s daughters in the family-owned oil company.
The case has also triggered wider discussions about succession, shareholder rights and corporate governance in privately owned family businesses.
The dispute began after Zara and Ameena alleged that their shareholdings in Oriental Energy were drastically reduced, resulting in a major cut in the dividends they received.
The sisters claimed that they originally held about five per cent each in the company.
However, their interests were allegedly reduced to approximately 0.63 per cent each.
The development became particularly contentious after Oriental Energy declared a whopping $435.1 million dividend in 2016.
The sisters argued that they were entitled to dividends based on their original shareholdings and challenged the reduction of their interests.
In February, the Federal High Court ruled in their favour.
The court held that the sisters remained entitled to dividends based on their earlier shareholdings and ordered Oriental Energy to pay them $43.51 million.
But the company has rejected the decision and headed to the Court of Appeal.
Oriental Energy maintains that the reduction in the sisters’ shareholdings was lawful and that the transfers were voluntarily made.
The company also argues that previous financial settlements had already resolved the dispute.
Now, Indimi himself wants to enter the legal battle.
Unlike the company’s existing appeal, his application is being made in his personal capacity, seeking permission to participate as a party in the proceedings.
The Court of Appeal is expected to first determine whether the billionaire should be joined in the case before proceeding to consider the substance of the appeal.
The legal battle has consequently grown from an internal family disagreement into a major corporate ownership fight involving one of Nigeria’s leading indigenous oil companies.
It has also attracted attention because of the broader questions it raises about ownership, succession and the treatment of shareholders in family-controlled businesses.
Indimi founded Oriental Energy Resources in the early 1990s and became one of the pioneers of Nigeria’s indigenous oil industry.
The company has since grown into one of the country’s major privately owned upstream oil producers, with interests in offshore assets including the Ebok, Okwok and OML 115 fields.
Oriental Energy has also been a major player in the expansion of indigenous participation in Nigeria’s petroleum industry, particularly following government reforms designed to increase local ownership of oil assets.
But the billionaire founder now finds himself seeking a place in a courtroom battle involving his own daughters and a $43.51 million judgment.
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