One of the Directors of Seplat Energy, Austin Avuru, has responded to his sack last week by the company.
Avuru, who was sacked as Non-Executive Director of the Board, was a Co-founder and pioneer CEO of Seplat Energy.
The sack was contained in a statement by the company.
Responding to the statement, Avuru via his lawyers at Perchstone and Graeys described the publication and announcement as “grossly mischievous” and intended to malign and do “incalculable damage to his hard-earned reputation.”
Avuru, who took Seplat public in a historic 2014 dual listing on the London and Nigerian Stock Exchanges, advised the general public “to discountenance Seplat Energy’s publication of December 23, 2021” while his lawyers respond “to the fictitious allegations.”
Seplat Energy has been in the eye of the storm for months now with several Nigerian banks tackling its embattled Chairman, ABC Orjiako, over unpaid loans.
The reputational damage from the chairman’s inability to service his loans led to Xavier Rolet, an independent non-executive director in Seplat Energy Plc, resigning from his position two days after a Federal High Court in Lagos, Nigeria granted Zenith Bank Plc interim orders of Mareva Injunctions against Shebah Exploration & Production Company Limited, Shebah Petroleum Development Company Limited, owned by Orjiako and others.
Though Edith Onwuchekwa, Director Legal and Company Secretary at Seplat, had noted in a November 9, 2021 statement: “The order has no impact on the operations of Seplat Energy,” Rolet’s resignation is believed to have compelled Orjiako to announce that he would step down from the board after the Annual General Meeting in May 2022 even though he is not due to retire until 2023.