Lekan Akinyanmi, the erstwhile CEO of Aim-listed Lekoil Plc, removed over accusation of governance breach has sued his former company saying it is planning to take over the Nigerian unit of the company he still heads.

Akinyanmi, who heads Lekoil Nigeria now operating independently of Lekoil Plc (registered in Cayman Island, and who provided financing for Lekoil Nigeria) through his attorney, Proskauer Rose LLP, sued Lekoil Cayman, for unlawful and hostile takeover of the company.

This brings a new twist to the lingering shareholder dispute that has seen Metallon, the South African majority shareholder of Lekoil Cayman, sell off its share in the company a few weeks ago precipitating a 41 percent crash in the company’s shares.

Meanwhile, Lekoil Cayman is suing Akinyanmi to recover loans it said he took from the company.

In a note to investors on September 10, Lekoil Cayman said, “Pursuant to the loan agreement between the Company and Mr. Olalekan Akinyanmi (as previously disclosed to the market), Akinyanmi was due to repay US$394,581 on 9 September 2021.

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“The Company notes that it has not received the repayment due and that it has commenced legal proceedings to recover the amounts due and owing to the Company,” the company said.

It is not yet clear who Metallon sold its 23 million shares to and has not disclosed it fueling suspicion that share conversion rules on the exchange may have been flouted.

Sources inside the company say some concerned Lekoil shareholders have already protested the transaction, as the AIM rules stipulate that such volume of shares should be offered to the investing public.

Lekoil Nigeria is filing a formal petition to the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange, especially as Lekoil (Cayman) Ltd is seeking to raise a convertible facility agreement (CFA) worth £200,000 from Hadron Master Fund and TDR enterprises to fund its legal battle against Lekoil Nigeria.

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Isaac Anyaogu is an Assistant editor and head of the energy and environment desk. He is an award-winning journalist who has written hundreds of reports on Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, energy and environmental policies, regulation and climate change impacts in Africa. He was part of a journalist team that investigated lead acid pollution by an Indian recycler in Nigeria and won the international prize - Fetisov Journalism award in 2020. Mr Anyaogu joined BusinessDay in January 2016 as a multimedia content producer on the energy desk and rose to head the desk in October 2020 after several ground breaking stories and multiple award wining stories. His reporting covers start-ups, companies and markets, financing and regulatory policies in the power sector, oil and gas, renewable energy and environmental sectors He has covered the Niger Delta crises, and corruption in NIgeria’s petroleum product imports. He left the Audit and Consulting firm, OR&C Consultants in 2015 after three years to write for BusinessDay and his background working with financial statements, audit reports and tax consulting assignments significantly benefited his reporting. Mr Anyaogu studied mass communications and Media Studies and has attended several training programmes in Ghana, South Africa and the United States

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