General Hydrocarbons, the oil servicing firm at the center of legal and arbitration battles with the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) and First Bank, is now under receivership, the receiver/manager said on Thursday.
The announcement was made despite an order of interim injunction barring AMCON’s managing director, First Bank’s and the attorney General of the Federation from involving in any action against General Hydrocarbons.
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General Hydrocarbons is majority owned by Nduka Obaigbena, the chairman and editor-in-chief of THIS DAŸ newspaper and ARISE Media Group.
In an advertisement published in some national newspapers on Thursday, Oluseyi Akinwunmi, the receiver/manager appointed by AMCON said he was appointed by a deed of appointment and a notice of appointment, both dated 18 September 2025, duly registered under the provisions of Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020.
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The advertisement directed all debtors of the company to pay all their debts directly to the receiver and all the creditors to send their proof of claims alongside sworn affidavit verifying the debt to the receiver within thirty days of the date of the publication.
Also, it stated that all cash, deposits and others currently held by banks and other financial institutions should be held pending further instructions from the receiver.
Meanwhile, court papers seen by PREMIUM TIMES showed Justice A Lewis-Allagoa of the Federal High Court in Lagos had on 22 September 2025 issued an order of interim injunction barring AMCON’s managing director, First Bank’s and the attorney General of the Federation from involving in any action against General Hydrocarbons or its assets in relation to a debt incurred by Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Nigeria Limited to First Bank pending the hearing and the determination of the motion on notice in the suit.
The order also prohibited the four from taking any steps or continuing any moves to enforce any rights against the energy firm or its assets.
The rights, the court said, include “but not limited to freezing the accounts of the applicant, its directors or shareholders, the appointment of a receiver/receiver manager, asset manager, recovery agent, etc., over the applicant, the applicant’s assets, or the assets belonging to the applicant’s directors or shareholders.”
On Thurday, however, the AMCON receiver manager told this newspaper that there was no court order against the receivership arrangement.
“At the time AMCON appointed me receiver manager, there was no order against me. I was appointed under the law, and I am operating according to law,” Oluseyi Akinwunmi, the receiver manager told PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday.
One of the lawyers to General Hydrocarbons told PREMIUM TIMES that AMCON recently obtained an order to enforce the receivership from a court of equal jurisdiction in suit number 2159 presided over by Justice Aluko.
But details of the new court order remain unclear as of press time Thursday. PREMIUM TIMES’ efforts to get clarity about the order from the reciever proved futile Thursday afternoon.
Background
On 28 October, the arbitration panel directed General Hydrocarbons to pay First Bank the said sums as legal costs incurred by the lender in a lawsuit that resulted from a subrogation agreement between the parties in May 2021.
Justice Kumai Akaah, who announced the arbitral decision last Monday, asked General Hydrocarbons to pay First Bank within 30 days.
“Failure to do so would attract a 10 per cent annual interest rate until full settlement,” the judge said in his ruling.
The debt, on the basis of which Justice Lewis-Allagoa issued the injunction, was incurred by Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts to First Bank, resulting in a deficit of US$718 million in the books of the lender, which was purchased by AMCON as an eligible bank asset.
In 2011, Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts, chaired by Jide Omokore, an associate of a former Minister of Petroleum Diezani Alison-Madueke, obtained a credit facility from First Bank.
The $490 million loan was granted to finance the company’s operating and capital expenditure requirements for the drilling of four oil wells with proven reserves (together known as the Forcados assets) as well as its Strategic Alliance Agreement with the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC).
The facility was secured with Atlantic Energy’s assets and rights through the agreement, while First Bank had charge over the company’s collection accounts.
The facility later turned problematic, following Atlantic Energy’s payment defaults.
“In line with our commitment to address the legacy asset quality challenges, exposure to Atlantic Energy, our biggest NPL (non-performing loan), was written off in the second quarter,” Adesola Adeduntan, First Bank former CEO said in 2019.
According to its financial report, First Bank was able to reduce its non-performing loan ratio to 14.5 per cent as of June 2019 from 25.3 per cent after writing off the N126 billion loan.
Oba Otudeko, the then chairman of FBN Holdings, later sought Mr Obaigbena’s help to salvage First Bank from a potentially disastrous situation, prompting the duo to agree to work together, according to Mr Obaigbena, who held an approved oil mining lease (OML) from former President Umaru Yar’Adua.
In 2020, Mr Obaigbena arranged a meeting between Mr Otudeko, the then chairman of FBN Holdings and Mele Kyari, the managing director of NNPC Limited.
In a letter written to Yemi Cardoso, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, dated 7 November 2024 and seen by PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Obaigbena argued that the NNPC under the late Maikanti Baru, then GMD, had refused to sign the security documents for the now bad, non-performing loan to Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Nigeria Limited (Atlantic Energy) for OML 26, OML 42, OML30 and OML 34 under separate Strategic Alliance Agreements between Atlantic Energy and NPDC Limited, claiming it was a fraudulent scheme to defraud the Federal Government by the then Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke.
He noted that it was obvious during the meeting, which he claimed to be part of, that the facilities granted to Atlantic Energy by First Bank did not follow due process.
“FBN was now faced with an unsecured and non-performing exposure of $718M and was on the verge of becoming a systemic risk to the banking sector,” he stated.
“It was discovered that FBN had given this loan recklessly without security as part of a scheme that funded Diezani Allison-Madueke and Kola Aluko, (details of these are still being investigated by Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission “EFCC” and the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency “NCA”),” Mr Obaigbena added.
Consequently, Mr Obaigbena said former President Muhammadu Buhari approved the licence, resulting in OMLs 120 and 121 being granted to General Hydrocarbons in 2021.
Following a series of meetings between First Bank and General Hydrocarbons, he said there was an agreement based on the fact that he held a valid OML award that First Bank would finance the optimum exploration, development and production of OML 120.
Part of the terms, he added, was that General Hydrocarbons would share the profit equally with First Bank over eight years to help the latter “reduce the holes in their books” caused by their bad loans, especially the facilities availed to Atlantic Energy.
According to Mr Obaigbena, General Hydrocarbons made it clear that since the company is not Atlantic Energy, it would never be responsible for their obligations which was then being pursued by AMCON and EFCC.
The central role of the company, he asserted, was to help First Bank return to good standing with a totally different transaction structure as General Hydrocarbons has no connection with Atlantic Energy.
The letter stated that First Bank sold its outstanding exposure as an Eligible Bank Asset (EBA) to AMCON at a discount to be paid off by its share of profit from the deal it earlier reached with General Hydrocarbons.
It added that the lender agreed to a clawback provision with AMCON, meaning that in the event that the outstanding exposure was not paid, AMCON would recover the EBA from First Bank’s books.
Mr Obaigbena stated that First Bank, AMCON and General Hydrocarbons signed an outstanding exposure tripartite deed allowing Global Hydrocarbons to guarantee payment of a pending of a now discounted outstanding exposure of $600 million in naira on the books of the bank.
“Once GHL signed the Outstanding Exposure Tripartite Deed effective 31st December 2021, FBN’s account which was then classified by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was now whole again having escaped a loan loss provision of 302Bn Naira against a profit of 151Bn Naira ultimately declared for the year ending 31st December 2021,” the document stated.
“Had GHL not signed and guaranteed the EBA to AMCON, FBN’s loss for 2021 would have been 161Bn Naira, a whopping amount for the financial sector at that time, when the exchange rate was N400 – $1 having regard to the fact that this loan had been classified and non-performing since 2015 (six years before).”
Mr Obaigbena alleged that the bank put stumbling blocks in the financing of the development of OML 120, violating the outstanding exposure tripartite deed.
More than seventy utilisation requests made by General Hydrocarbons in respect of the facility took First Bank between seven and 67 days to pay instead of five days, he added, causing significant losses to Global Hydrocarbons.
The document further noted that Global Hydrocarbons requested a $53 million facility from First Bank on 28 August 2024, which was granted two months after by which time the lender “smuggled in a new variable of the appointment of an Independent Asset Manager” under a framework agreement that sought to effectively replace key components of the foundational MOU, unknown to the Tripartite Deed between AMCON, FBN and GHL and also unknown to the Petroleum Industry Act.
“Mr. Governor, we have been left with no choice but to go to court and arbitration to preserve our fundamental rights and our rights under the agreements in the face of FBN’s attempts to clubber and bully us out of existence,” the letter stated.
READ ALSO: $718 million Debt: Court blocks AMCON, First Bank from confiscating General Hydrocarbon’s assets
“We are seeking to enforce the provision of our MOU which allows us to raise finance independent of FBN when they fail to do so, for which they have failed abysmally.
After over three and half years (3.5) years, all we have received from FBN is bad faith.”
On 27 December 2024, First Bank and FBN Quest Trustees approached the Federal Court in Lagos to seek restraining orders in respect of a total claim of $225.8 million being alleged outstanding indebtedness on General Hydrocarbons’ account with First Bank as of 30 September 2024.
The order barred all commercial banks in Nigeria from releasing or dealing in all monies and assets up to $225.8 million due to Mr Obaigbena from any account maintained by him.
The court also blocked all commercial banks from releasing or dealing in all monies and assets up to the said amount belonging to Efe Damilola Obaigbena, Olabisi Eka Obaigbena and General Hydrocarbons Limited, an oil and gas firm in which all the three are directors and shareholders.
Another order barring the banks from dealing in or releasing such monies and assets due to the company, its agents, privies, subsidiaries and sister companies with the banks up to the same sum was issued, according to court documents obtained by PREMIUM TIMES.
In March 2025, the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, dismissed First Bank’s claims accusing General Hydrocarbons of diversion of the proceeds from the sale of crude oil pledged as collateral for loan facilities.
In September 2025, First Bank recorded a victory in the case, with the Court of Appeal setting aside the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt Division’s decision.
The court granted First Bank’s appeal, directing the crude oil to be sold and that the proceeds be lodged in an interest-bearing escrow account under the custody of the Chief Registrar of the court.
Later in September, General Hydrocarbons filed a fresh suit at the Federal High Court in Lagos seeking a declaration that AMCON “can only take enforcement measures against Atlantic Energy drilling Concept Nigeria Limited or First Bank,” by virtue of “the Loan Purchase and Limited Servicing Agreement between the defendants.”
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