Business

Court Orders Seizure Of Emirates Airline’s Aircraft Over N8m Judgment Debt

Published

5 years ago

December 2, 2019

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Monday ordered the seizure of an aircraft belonging to Emirates Airline over an N8.1 million judgment debt.

The order was sequel to a motion filed by Dr. Charles Mekwunye seeking the enforcement of a Supreme Court judgment in a suit between Promise Mekwunye and the airline.

In a judgment delivered on November 15, 2010, the Federal High Court held that the refusal of Emirates Airline to carry Mekwunye amounted to a breach of contract of carriage.

Consequently, the court ordered a full refund of the ticket without any deduction or charge and further granted N2.5 million in general damages and N250,000 in legal costs against the airline.

Granting the reliefs sought by Mekwunye, Justice Mohammed Liman held that “it is accordingly ordered that an attachment is hereby issued on the judgment debtor’s aircraft registered as ‘A6 Aircraft Type 77W EK: 783/784’, or any other aircraft belonging to the judgment debtor which flies into Nigeria Territory, to be arrested and detained until the judgment debt is fully paid. If there is default after 30 days, the aircraft shall be auctioned to satisfy the judgment debt.”

The judge also ordered that Emirates Airline to bear the cost of maintenance and custody of the detained aircraft.

Miss Mekwunye, who was then a student of North Texas University, Denton, Texas, United States had in 2008 dragged the airline to court for refusal of her two-way flight ticket from Dallas to Nigeria and back for no reason and for also refusing to fully refund the cost of the American Airline ticket she bought for her return trip to Nigeria.

She claimed that the airline offered no reason for its action leaving her stranded for days at the airport until she was able to secure a more expensive flight ticket on a longer route to Lagos.

Vanguard

Business

NNPCL, Dangote In Marathon Meetings Over Petrol Pricing

Published

3 hours ago

September 14, 2024

Editor

Pricing of the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) has been a key agenda in the marathon meetings between the managements of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPCL) and Dangote Petroleum Limited in the last few weeks, The Nation learnt.

A source of the National Oil Company, who was privy to the meetings, which have been holding in the NNPCL Tower, Abuja, said they also tabled other matters relating to pricing.

The source, who only spoke with The Nation in confidence said: “We have been holding meetings for over three weeks now, discussing various issues, with pricing being one of the key topics, along with other related matters.”

READ ALSO: NNPCL Announces Date Dangote’s Petrol Will Flood Market, Prices To Be determined by Market Forces
The meetings are certainly the roundtable negotiations following their previous disagreements over pricing.

Dangote Group President Aliko Dangote had said the product was regulated by NNPCL.

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It also added that the state-owned oil firm was yet to fix the pump for the PMS.

After days of conjecture about the pricing and sale of the product, NNPCL insisted it will certainly procure the product offshore if it is not cheaper in the Nigeria’s domestic refineries.

The NNPCL’s current petrol pump price is N897 per litre with independent marketers vending the product for as much as N1,200 per litre and black marketers selling in plastic Jerry cans uncontrollably for as much as N13,000 per 10 litre.

This has resulted in endless queues around the NNPCL retail outlets and the independent stations.
NATION

Business

Naira Depreciates Further In Parallel Market

Published

19 hours ago

September 13, 2024

Editor

The Naira continued its downward trend on Friday, depreciating to N1,660 per dollar in the parallel market.

This represents a slight decline from the N1,655 per dollar traded on Thursday.

In a similar vein, the Naira depreciated to N1,546.41 per dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday. According to data from FMDQ, the indicative exchange rate for NAFEM fell from N1,649.76 per dollar on Thursday, indicating a marginal appreciation of N103.35 for the Naira.

However, the gap between the parallel market and NAFEM rates widened significantly, increasing to N113.59 per dollar from N5.24 per dollar the previous day. This growing disparity highlights the ongoing instability in the foreign exchange market.

Business

Low Local Patronage: Dangote Refinery Exports 97% Of Products

Published

2 days ago

September 12, 2024

Editor

The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has said that it is forced to export 97 percent of its refined products due to low patronage by local oil marketers.

Speaking during an an X space organised by Nairametrics, Devakumar Edwin, Vice President of Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), said only 3 percent of local oil marketers are purchasing refined petroleum products.

His words: “The conglomerate of all the importers is refusing to buy from us. It is very strange that after putting up the refinery to supply the products locally, I have to export every diesel and jet fuel because they do not want to buy from us,” Edwin said.

“We started selling the diesel, we fixed the price, and it was lower than the prevailing market price. Then, we brought the price further down and they (marketers) wrote to the president complaining.”

Specifically, Edwin said the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) wrote to President Bola Tinubu that the price cut affected their business “due to the large inventory of imported AGO”.

“I’m selling 2 percent to 3 percent to small traders who are willing to buy, while the rest 95 to 97% I’m forced to export,” he said.

The vice-president said the refinery may also be forced to export its petrol “if they are not willing to buy”.

“But to be very frank and straightforward, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has come forward.

“They have been discussing. Although the discussion has been going on for almost three weeks and it is not yet concluded, they are working to agree with us on the quantity of crude they can sell and they said they will monitor the products.

“They are going to have a team of 10 people sitting in the refinery. They will see the crude which we are going to receive, ensuring that everything is coming into the refinery, and they would watch whether we are producing and processing everything and then, they would watch whether we are giving back all the products,” Edwin said.