11th March, 2014
A Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday fixed April 16 to hear a suit filed by the Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics (LADOL) against Samsung Heavy Nig. Ltd over alleged breach of 3.8 billion dollars contract.
LADOL had filed the suit in February through its Counsel, Mr Fidelis Oditah (SAN), seeking an injunction restraining Samsung from breaching its contract with it.
Joined in the suit are Total Upstream Nig. Ltd, Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB), and the Minister of Petroleum Resources.
The case which was fixed for hearing on Tuesday was adjourned at the instance of NCDMB, which informed the court that it had just entered appearance in the suit.
Counsel to NCDMB, Mr Chidi Ilogu (SAN), while asking for an adjournment, noted that it required adequate time to regularise its processes before the court.
Counsel to the plaintiff, however, did not raise any objection to the application for an adjournment.
Consequently, Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke adjourned the case to April 16 for hearing.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the plaintiff had taken the defendants to court seeking an order to restrain them from excluding it in the execution of a contract.
In their statement of claim, the plaintiff averred that Total Nig. Ltd had awarded a 3.8 billion dollars contract to Samsung for the integration of a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) platform, otherwise known as Egina project.
According to the plaintiff, Samsung had presented LADOL to the defendants as a Local Content Partner (LCP) in a bid to secure the contract since an LCP was a pre-requisite for the award of such contract.
LADOL averred that an additional sum of 214 million dollars was awarded by Total Nig. Ltd in favour of the LCP.
He averred that when the contract was eventually awarded to Samsung, it excluded LADOL from the arrangement after using it as bait to secure the contract.
The plaintiffs, therefore, want the court to restrain the defendants from reneging on the contract agreement.
NAN also reports that at the last adjournment, Justice Aneke had made an interim order for status quo to be maintained pending the determination of the suit.
Counsel to the plaintiff, Oditah, however, on Tuesday, informed the court that the defendants had flouted the interim order of the court which ordered maintenance of the status quo.
He told the court that he would file an affidavit to substantiate his claims
