Kola Abiola, the eldest son of the late billionaire business mogul and politician Chief MKO Abiola, has been slapped with a winding up petition against one of his companies Summit Oil Exploration Limited over its alleged inability to fulfil its contractual obligation.
Abiola’s company was dragged before a federal high court in Lagos by Seistech Energy Company who are demanding the winding up of Summit Oil on grounds of the latter’s alleged insolvency.
Through its lawyer Barrister Fidel Albert, Seistech alleges that it was contracted by the respondent for an end to end design, construction and installation of delivery lines for Summit Oil to enable the respondent transport crude oil and condensate from its Otien-1 Field oil wells.
As part of the contractual agreement signed sometime in April 2017, Summit Oil made a payment of ₦N11,868,703.75, being 50% of the agreed-on mobilization fee for the work; it was expected that it would proceed to pay the rest of the contract price in Installments.
Seistech alleges that Summit however defaulted in issuing any further payment tranches despite repeated reminders and requests, even after it offered numerous assurances that it would do so.
After exhausting all options to recover the money owed, Seistech took the option of taking the case to court in order to recover the outstanding debt of around ₦69 million. It is the court to declare Summit Oil financially insolvent and wind it up.
In a swift development, Abiola’s company responded to the petition through a notice of preliminary objection claiming that the contract signed by both companies stipulate that any dispute between them should be resolved through arbitration.
The company thus argued through its lawyer that in failing to trigger the dispute resolution clause before going to court Seistech Oil has committed a legal faux pas and its case should be summarily thrown out of court.
The case which was adjourned to Wednesday however comes at a time of renewed spotlight on the Abiola family. The federal government recently made a formal apology to the Abiola family and bestowed on the late acclaimed winner of the June 12 1993 Presidential Elections the posthumous honour of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic, an accolade reserved exclusively for presidents and heads of state.