By Obinna Uballa
Malabu Oil & Gas Limited, one of Nigeria’s most controversial oil firms, has filed a lawsuit at the Federal High Court in Abuja challenging its deregistration by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), describing the move as “unlawful, illegal, null and void.”
The company, reportedly co-owned by Mohammed Abacha, son of the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, and other shareholders, is asking the court to compel the CAC to restore its name to the companies’ register.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2137/2025, lists the CAC as the sole defendant. Malabu, through its counsel, Reuben Atabo (SAN), argues that the deregistration, allegedly carried out over failure to file annual returns, violated provisions of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), 2020, given the company’s pending legal disputes.
The oil firm is seeking an order directing the CAC to reinstate its name in line with Section 692(6) of CAMA, as well as a perpetual injunction restraining the Commission from further striking off its name from the register.
Atabo contended that the action was premature and improper since multiple court cases over Malabu’s ownership and management were still pending. He cited at least five ongoing suits, including FHC/ABJ/CS/51/2010, FHC/ABJ/CS/14/2017, FHC/ABJ/CS/816/14, CR/151/2020, and FHC/ABJ/CR/268/2016, some of which already involve the CAC as a party.
In an affidavit deposed to by Mohammed Abacha, he affirmed being an original subscriber and current director of Malabu Oil & Gas, incorporated in April 1998 under RC No. 334442, alongside Kweku Amafagha, Hassan Hindu, and Wakili Adamawa as co-founders.
Abacha recalled that shortly after incorporation, the company applied for and was granted Oil Prospecting License (OPL) 245 by the Federal Government through the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
He further alleged that during his three-year detention under President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration in 1999, certain individuals altered the company’s records at the CAC, removing his name as a shareholder and director without his consent.
According to him, several letters were written to the CAC between 2005 and 2011 requesting the correction of the alleged illegal alterations, but no response was received, prompting him to approach the court in suit FHC/ABJ/CS/51/2010 before Justice Gabriel Kolawole (now of the Court of Appeal).
Abacha also accused the CAC of violating due process by failing to publish a notice in a national newspaper before striking off Malabu’s name, as required under Section 692(3) of CAMA.
He insisted that the Commission’s action was “unlawful and done in bad faith,” warning that failure to reverse the deregistration “would occasion grave prejudice to the plaintiff.”
The case is yet to be assigned to a judge or given a hearing date as of press time.
