A Federal High Court has ordered Oriental Energy, founded by businessman Muhammadu Indimi, to pay his twin daughters $43.51 million in a dispute over dividends.
The ruling, reported by The Africa Report, handed a major win to Ameena and Zara Indimi after a legal battle over whether they were unfairly excluded from a dividend pool linked to the company’s offshore oil earnings.
Muhammadu Indimi is the father of Ahmed Indimi, who is married to Zahra Buhari, daughter of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
At the centre of the case is a dispute over ownership and entitlement. The twins argued that they were entitled to a combined 10 percent stake in Oriental Energy and therefore a share of dividends tied to about $435.1 million said to have been declared by the company.
They alleged that their individual holdings were significantly reduced, leaving them with less than they believed they owned, and that the changes deprived them of their rightful payout.
Oriental Energy is a private Nigerian exploration and production company with offshore interests in the Niger Delta. The firm has operated for decades and is one of the better-known privately held players in Nigeria’s upstream oil sector.
The dispute extends beyond the twins, with disagreements within the wider Indimi family over control of holdings and whether earlier payments to some relatives should be treated as gifts, buyouts or settlement funds that ended dividend rights.
Ahmed Indimi testified against his sisters during the proceedings.
Details of the judgment, including how the court arrived at the $43.51 million figure and the timeline for compliance, were not fully disclosed in available reports.
