By Ikechukwu Nnochiri
ABUJA — A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Tuesday, dismissed as lacking in merit, an application the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL, filed to query its jurisdiction to hear the suit that was brought against it by Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE.
The suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1324/2024 seeks to nullify the licenses the Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, issued to enable the NNPCL and other marketers, to import refined petroleum products into the country.
Other defendants in the matter are AYM Shafa Limited; A. A. Rano Limited; T. Time Petroleum Limited; 2015 Petroleum Limited; as well as Matrix Petroleum Services Limited.
The plaintiff, Dangote Refinery, had insisted that it was wrong to issue licences for importation of petroleum products such as Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) and Jet Fuel (aviation turbine fuel) into Nigeria when there is no shortfall in its own local production.
Aside from praying the court to award N100 billion in damages against the NMDPRA for issuing import licenses, the plaintiff applied for an order of injunction to restrain the 1st defendant (NMDPRA) from further issuing and/or renewing import licenses to the 2nd to 7th defendants or other companies for the purpose of importing petroleum products.
Meanwhile, before the matter could be heard, the NNPCL filed a preliminary objection to challenge the competence of the suit and the jurisdiction of the court to hear it.
Arguing that the plaintiff sued a non-existing party, it noted that what was listed as the 2nd defendant in the matter was ‘NNPC’, an entity that is currently non-existent.
Consequently, NNPCL urged the court to strike out its name from the suit, even as it challenged the locus standi (legal right) of the plaintiff to file the action it described as “premature.”
“The 2nd defendant is not a competent party. The plaintiff’s suit is incompetent. This honourable court lacks the jurisdiction to hear this suit,” the NNPCL argued.
However, in his ruling on Tuesday, Justice Inyang Ekwo dismissed the objection for want of merit.
The court further granted an application the plaintiff filed to amend the suit to reflect the proper name of the NNPCL.
In a related ruling, the court dismissed an application the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, FCCPC, filed to be joined as a defendant in the suit.
The court held the the dispute before it could be effectively determined without the FCCPC which it said was not a relevant or necessary party.
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