A Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has directed parties in the suit filed by an indigenous oil service company, Arco Group Plc against Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited, NAOC, to maintain status quo pending the determination of the applications before it. Justice Lambo Akanbi’s order was sequel to an oral application by the lead counsel to Arco, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, asking the court to prevail on parties from doing anything that would jeopardise the case.

In the originating summons, Arco is challenging the alleged refusal of NOAC to comply with the provisions of section 3 subsections 2 and 3 of the Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act, 2010. Olanipekun said: ”Our humble prayer is that you should advise parties to maintain the status quo for now until the matter is dispensed with.”

Opposing the application, counsel to NAOC, Charles Ajuyah, SAN, also argued that the jurisdiction of the court is still in contest and that it ought not to make such orders. He further said that the plaintiff had not in any way accused his client of doing anything likely to undermine the outcome of the suit to warrant the order.

Ajuyah said: “My learned friend has not told the court that my client has done anything. It is not an order that is gotten just by asking.” He noted that what the court could do is only to request that counsel advise their clients not to do anything regarding the subject matter of the suit and not an order.

But Justice Lambo disagreed with him and ordered that parties should maintain status quo, and adjourned further proceedings to October 26, 2015. Before the decision, the court had ruled that NOAC is not properly before it on the ground that it has not filed a memorandum of appearance.

This followed Olanipekun’s argument that NAOC’s application challenging the jurisdiction cannot be heard. Quoting order 29, rule 1 and 2, of the court’s rule, Olanipekun argued that condition precedent must be fulfilled before the issue of jurisdiction, and maintained that Ajuyah is “still not before the court and needs to knock, seek or find, so as to receive.”

But Ajuyah insisted that at the last adjournment, the court adjourned for arguments on jurisdiction, adding that the motion filed by the plaintiff to strike out his application is not ripe for hearing. He added that he has filed a motion for extension of time to enable him to file memorandum of appearance as demanded by law, but is yet to serve the plaintiff’s counsel.

Consequently, Ajuyah obliged to give Olanipekun a copy of his own motion for extension of time, within which to file for appearance. After glancing at it, Olanipekun said he would want to go through it thoroughly, having identified three prayers contained in it. As a result, parties resolved to take a new date.

The court had earlier struck out the preliminary objection filed by NOAC, praying the court to decline jurisdiction. In his ruling, Justice Akanbi held that the preliminary objection by the company’s counsel, Thompson Okpoko (SAN), was incompetent and accordingly struck it out. However, the judge refused to agree with the Beluolisa Nwofor (SAN), counsel to the plaintiff that the preliminary objection by the defendants was not properly as stipulated by law.

Besides NAOC, other defendants in the suit are the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC; Conoco Phillips Petroleum Nig. Ltd; and National Petroleum Investment Management Services, NAPIMS.

The court had restrained the defendants from awarding any contract to any company for the maintenance of gas turbines and rotating equipment at first defendants OB/OB, Ebocha and Kwale gas plants, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit. The award of contracts in the turbine forms the subject-matter of the suit, for which the plaintiff, ARCO, alleged a breach by NAOC for awarding the contract to Plantgeria Company Ltd.