A Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has threatened to commit the management of an international Marine and Energy service company, Topaz Energy and Marine to prison for court contempt and what it termed “notice of consequence of court disobedience.”
The warning which was contained in Form 48 and signed by Justice I. Watila was directed in particular to the company’s Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Rene Kofod-Olsen , Rune Zeuthen, William Watt, the current Regional Director, Tom Knudsen.
Others are officers of the company, and captains of three of their vessels, namely Topaz Amani, Topaz Seema and Caspian Breeze.
According to the Form 48, the court held that, “Mr Rene Kofod-Olsen take notice that unless you obey the directions contained in the order of court made by Hon Justice I Watila of the Federal High Court Port Harcourt Division on the 17th of August 2016,you will be guilty of contempt of court and will be liable to be committed to prison.”
Justice Watila issued the Form 48 for the arrest of the Topaz CEO and the other persons to explain why they have been contemptuous in disregarding the court’s order.
This action is in relation to their alleged disobedience of the court’s earlier order that their ocean-going vessels, Seema, Amani and Caspian Breeze should not be moved out of the country without the express permission of the law court as stipulated by Nigerian Law.
The earlier order was given, following a dispute between Topaz Energy and Marine and its local partners for breach of contract terms guiding their shareholders agreement, a situation that made the court to order an arrest of the above vessels.
Despite the order given, the court learnt that Caspian Breeze has left Nigerian waters.
Against this backdrop, the court also ordered relevant security authorities to detain on sighting the vessel.
The Nigerian partner is claiming that it is “owed over $12m by Topaz on account of the profits made by Topaz Nigeria, which has not been remitted to it and that Topaz is cooking the accounts to depress the profits and call for more shareholders’ investment.
“That Topaz also lumped up expenditure of Topaz Dubai on the accounts of the Nigerian sister company arbitrarily and has refused to call any board meetings.”
The Nigerian partners have also warned, “Price Waterhouse Accountants not be dragged to assist in any cover up by deliberately undervaluing the company for purposes of shielding Topaz.”
The partners have began processes to take Topaz to a U.K court for breach of contract.
Topaz alleged disobedience of court orders has been the hallmark of their senior management where they appear to have scant regard for the laws of the lands in which they are visitors and operate their vessels.
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