Minority shareholders of Oando Plc are demanding that the directors refund a total of N7.425bn allegedly spent by the company to host “a very lavish and clearly extravagant end-of-year party on December 19, to commemorate and mark the 30th anniversary of Ocean & Oil Group,” its majority shareholder.
In a letter through Iseoluwa O. Abiodun-Johnson, Managing Partner, The Lawsmiths, their solicitors, titled Re:Demand for immediate compliance with undertakings given at the 45th annual general meeting of Oando Plc held on 17th December 2024 and refund of money spent on celebrating Ocean & Oil Group’s 30th anniversary,” the shareholders expressed dismay at such party.
According to the letter, the party featured such music stars as Burna Boy, Wizkid, Davido, Omah Lay, among others, at a time Oando Plc has been unable to pay dividend on their investment for 10 consecutive years due to successive losses.
“Our clients find this expense outrageous and unjustified, considering the 31% reduction in the company’s profit in its Q3 2024 financials and the lack of dividends to the minority shareholders since 2013, even though your management staff and board members have consistently received remuneration without fail over the same period,” the letter noted.
As a way forward, the shareholders demand “a total refund of the sum spent on the extravagant end of year party on the 19th December 2024 by Ocean & Oil Group to Oando Plc.`
According to the letter addressed to the Group Chief Executive Officer of Oando Plc, attention: Jubril Adewale Tinubu, and dated January 7, 2025, the law firm added: “Our clients are further unhappy about how the interests of your Ocean & Oil Group have consistently been promoted over and above Oando Plc as exhibited in the 2023 annual report in which you attempted revisionism to make Oando Plc look like its story began in 1994 when Ocean & Oil was founded. It must be made clear that Oando Plc and Ocean & Oil Group are distinct and separate. They are not the same entity.”
The shareholders also asked Oando Plc to immediately publish details of companies indebted to it, how much, the exact number of shares involved and proposed ratio of distribution, the relationship between those companies and Oando directors.
They also want Oando Plc to publish the cessation of its oando Go Private pet project, filing/service of a notice of discontinuation to this effect.
Recall that Oando Plc, on January 3, 2025, announced the formal resignation of Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, the Alake of Egbaland, as chariman, immediately following the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on December 17, 2024, after over 18 years on the board, including 12 years as Chairman.
In the suit: Venus Construction Limited & Ors vs. Ocean & Oil Development Partners Limited & Ors, as well as numerous other concerned minority shareholders of Oando Plc (suit No. FHC/L/CP/494/2021), the shareholders recalled that at the said 45th AGM, recalled expressed concern over the vague nature of Resolution 3.1 for which the directors sought approval. They noted the lack of details on the exact nature of the proposed restructuring and identities of the entities said to be owing Oando Plc and their relationship with the board members, especially the Group CEO.
At the said meeting, they recalled further, Mr. Ike osakwe, chairman of the Audit Committee, as explaining “that because of Oando Plc’s inability to pay dividends over the past 10 years, the board decided to compensate shareholders by distributing 4.3bn shares purchased/received from Whitmore to Oando Plc’s existing shareholders on pro-rata basis.”
The shareholders thereafter demanded for a copy of the written clarification read by Mr. Osakwe, to which the board promised that the Company Secretary would publish the details and circulate to the shareholders on the following day. Based on this promise, the shareholders said they agreed to pass the said resolution.
Following the board’s failure to fulfil the promise to publish the written explanation after 20 days, a situation they described as an indication of reluctance/unwillingness on the part of the Oando Plc management to abide by the agreement.
The aggrieved shareholders recalled how Tinubu and Osakwe while responding to shareholders’ concerns over the status of “Oando Go Private” pet project affirmed that it is dead and buried.
But 20 days after, they lamented in the letter copied to the Director-General of the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC Nigeria) and the Nigerian Exchange Limited, that the company secretary has not published statement contrary to its promise.
