OIL & GAS

ExxonMobil sacked me because I shunned dubious actions–Ex-Staff

&NewLine;<p><strong>  <&sol;strong>A Lagos&nbsp&semi; National&NewLine;Industrial&nbsp&semi; court sitting in Ikoyi&comma; Nigeria has dismissed the objection&NewLine;filed by a multinational Oil company&comma; Exxonmobil Corporation and its parent&NewLine;body Mobil Producing Nigeria UnLimited against N4billion suit instituted&NewLine;against the company by its ex –staff&comma; Mr James Nwagbogwu Ebede&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi; &nbsp&semi;&NewLine;&nbsp&semi;Joined as co-defendant is the Vice President&comma; Mr&period;Ronald W&period; Romere&comma;who had&NewLine;worked in Nigeria before being deployed in Iraq&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi; &nbsp&semi; &nbsp&semi;&NewLine;In a statement of fact filed before National Industrial court by a Lagos lawyer&NewLine;Mr Francis Chuka Agbu SAN&comma; Ebede stated that he worked with&nbsp&semi; the company&NewLine;from December&comma; 2001 to 2018 as an Engineer adding that his consistent excellent&NewLine;performances was the reason he was&comma; at various times&comma; given important&NewLine;responsibilities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi; &nbsp&semi; &nbsp&semi;&NewLine;In 2015 he was deployed to Dubai&comma; the posting was to last till December&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;2017&comma; but was forcefully redeployed back to Nigeria and retired because he&NewLine;refused to carry out dishonest actions assigned to him by the manager of&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;ExxonMobil while on assignment in the United Arab&nbsp&semi; Emirates and Iran&period; On&NewLine;his return to Nigeria&comma; further punitive actions were taken against him leading&NewLine;to his forced pre-mature retirement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>He stated that the&NewLine;company attempted to compel him to employ unqualified Engineers&semi; &nbsp&semi;sign off poorly executed project as completed&semi;&NewLine;manipulate contracts in breach of&nbsp&semi; simple ethical guidelines&semi; &nbsp&semi;rig bidding process and award projects at&NewLine;escalated costs&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>His refusal to toll&NewLine;the unclean pathway&comma; according to him&comma; made the company not to reimburse him&NewLine;for the monies expended on settling his children&&num;8217&semi;s school fees&semi; refused to&NewLine;provide flight tickets for the return of his family members to Nigeria after&NewLine;his stay in Dubai as well as refusal &nbsp&semi;to&NewLine;ship &nbsp&semi;his belongings&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p> Consequently&comma; Mr Ebede is not only claiming the following sums of money  <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;&nbsp&semi;&dollar;40million as general damages for the emotional stress he has suffered&semi;&NewLine;&nbsp&semi;N114&comma;992&comma;096 being the equivalent of 32 months salary which defendant&NewLine;ought to pay him for his forceful retirement&comma; but also demanding published&NewLine;public apology in two daily newspapers and two international newspapers&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi; &nbsp&semi; &nbsp&semi;&NewLine;&nbsp&semi;However&comma; the defendants&comma; in their preliminary objection filed before the&NewLine;court by Mrs Abimbola Akeredolu SAN&comma; urged the court to decline jurisdiction to&NewLine;entertain the suit on the ground that the&nbsp&semi; ExxonMobil company&nbsp&semi; is an&NewLine;entity incorporated under the laws of the United States of America&period; therefore&NewLine;the Nigerian court lacks jurisdiction to entertain the matter&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi; &nbsp&semi; &nbsp&semi;&NewLine;In his response&comma; Agbu &nbsp&semi;contended&NewLine;that&nbsp&semi; the company not only conducts its business in Nigeria by mean of&NewLine;subsidiaries&comma; but also operates and directly&nbsp&semi; in Nigeria as it holds&NewLine;operating interest in several Oil Mining OML&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>He &nbsp&semi;therefore&comma; urged the court to dismiss the&NewLine;objection of the defendants&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi; &nbsp&semi; In his&NewLine;ruling&comma; the presiding Judge R&period; H&period; Gwandu while adjourning for hearing&nbsp&semi;<br>&NewLine;said&&num;8221&semi;I hold that this court has the jurisdiction to adjudicate on issues&NewLine;contained in the claimant&&num;8217&semi;s suits both by subject matter and territory&comma; the&NewLine;claimant having shown sufficient cause of action against the defendant&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Openlife Reporter

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