A saga is brewing in the Nigerian legal (specifically, admiralty law) ecosystem, and it is one that promises to have far-reaching implications for that aspect of law, and perhaps set a precedent in the jurisprudence relating to the admiralty sector and practice. Legal practitioners, as well as experts and scholars, are following with keen interest the tussle between NNPC Retail Limited and a Liberian-owned marine vessel, the M/T Ostria – along with two other corporate entities, in a suit (FHC/L/C/45/2025) filed at the Lagos Judicial Division of the Federal High Court, sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, by NNPC Retail Limited (identified in the Court record as the Plaintiff) against the afore-mentioned M/T Ostria (referred to as the 1st Defendant). Also joined in the suit are Orion Marine Limited (the bareboat charterers of the vessel, M/T Ostria) and referred to as the 2nd Defendant, and the 3rd Defendant, Taurus Oil & Gas Limited (identified as the owners of a storage depot located at the Koko Federal Port in Delta State of Nigeria). For purposes of clarity, a bareboat charterer is the person or entity that rents a vessel without a crew, and is then responsible for all aspects of its operation, including employing the Master and crew, navigation, maintenance, and adherence to maritime laws. In essence, the charterer takes on the role of the ship’s owner with full control over the vessel’s itinerary and actions.
Mr. Mike Igbokwe, SAN led other lawyers in appearing for NNPC Retail Limited, while Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN led other lawyers for the 1st and 2nd Defendants.
Recall that NNPC Retail Limited had in January 2025 approached the Federal High Court in Lagos, seeking about N6.8 billion as the cost of its 12,681,960 litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) which was a part of the 20,347,750 litres of its PMS that M/T Ostria carried for it from Lagos Offshore for delivery at the aforementioned Taurus Storage Facility in Koko. The Plaintiff alleged that 9,272,802 litres of this was wrongly pumped delivered at the Taurus storage Koko as *water* – resulting in the sum of about N280.7 million as loss of expected profit from the sale of the PMs, and 36% as interest per annum. In the alternative, NNPC Retail Limited is seeking against M/T Ostria and Orion Marine Limited, N15 billion in damages for breach of the contract of the carriage of the PMS by sea, or breach of duty or bailment or for negligence.
The Plaintiff’s request was granted by the Court via an ex parte oder, following which the marine vessel, M/T Ostria was arrested and detained in Lagos – pursuant to a Warrant of Arrest issued by the Court on January 16, 2025 – until the Defendants have provided an unconditional and acceptable bank guarantee issued by Zenith Bank Plc or Access Bank Plc to secure the claims filed by NNPC Retail Limited against them.
In response, the 1st and 2nd Defendants thereafter filed an application on January 28, 2025 for the vacation or setting aside and/or discharge the Court’s order of arrest – on the grounds of alleged concealment or misrepresentation of facts by the Plaintiff, NNPC Retail Limited. The ruling on this application was scheduled for Wednesday, April 9, 2025 – but later adjourned to Friday, April 11, 2025.
In the latest development in the case, Hon. Justice Akintayo Aluko of the Federal High Court, sitting in Lagos on April 11, 2025, struck out the application filed by the tanker, M/T Ostria and its bareboat charterers and deponent owners (Orion Marine Limited), to vacate or discharge the ex parte order of arrest of M/T Ostria, made on January 16, 2025 by his Lordship. In rejecting their prayer to vacate the ex parte order (based on their aforementioned allegations of misrepresentation and/or concealment of facts by NNPC Retail Limited) the Court held that NNPC Retail Limited had properly disclosed that M/T Ostria was under investigation by the Economic Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC), as seen in paragraphs 56 and 57 of the Affidavit in support of the ex parte Motion for Arrest. His Lordship also held that the relationship between the owners of the vessel (M/T Ostria) and NNPC Shipping & Logistics Limited, the Plaintiff’s sister company, cited by the Applicants, was not material to the arrest order, and that the Plaintiff satisfied the conditions for granting the arrest order, and no evidence of suppression of facts was found.
Agreeing with Mr. Igbokwe’s submissions, the Court further held that an admiralty action is ‘sui generis’ (i.e. it is a legal situation that requires a separate or special legal framework because it doesn’t fit neatly into established categories) and the arrest of the M/T Ostria served as necessary pre-judgment security.
His Lordship, however, granted the prayers of the Applicants for an extension of time to bring the prayer to vacate the ex parte order of arrest of the M/T Ostria, pursuant to Order 8 Rule 4 of the Admiralty Jurisdiction Procedure Rules 2023 (‘AJPR 2023’).
Regarding the issue of caveat against the arrest of the M/T Ostria, the honorable Court noted that the Plaintiff had disclosed in its affidavit (in support of the ex parte Motion for the arrest of the ship) that there was a caveat of US$6 million, which was less than the Plaintiff’s claim and the Court found the argument that the Plaintiff should have sought an increase in the caveat to be unreasonable and imprudent – given that the arrest of a vessel is an urgent matter under the Admiralty Jurisdiction Procedure Rules 2023. Additionally, the Court ruled, the fact that the caveat was accompanied by an undertaking was not deemed sufficient grounds to discharge the arrest order.
Against this backdrop, the case was further adjourned to May 26, 2025 for the hearing of pending applications.
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