Stakeholders in the power sector, including legal luminaries, yesterday expressed concern over the alleged receivership claims against Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC), First Independent Power Limited and Egbin Power Plc.
Such claims, which they described as unfounded, are capable of disrupting the fragile power sector and discouraging investors from participating.
The Principal Counsel, Gbenga Asaju and Co, Dr. Gbenga Asaju, said based on the certified true copy of the judgments circulating in the media, the receiver manager may have been appointed by his client, but he cannot claim to have taken over because there is a restraining order dated June 24, 2025 and reaffirmed on August 5, 2025.
According to the legal icon, until such order is vacated, the receiver manager is incapable of acting.
“There are issues that must be resolved first. Yes, the judgment of the Federal High Court obtained on June 24, 2025, is subsisting; it is a restraining order on anyone and everyone involved”.
“So, no one, including anyone who purportedly said that he was appointed as a receiver manager, can function as a receiver manager as it is now, until the disposition of the interlocutory issues before the court.
“Whenever there is a suit of this nature, and there is also an interlocutory application, the interlocutory application must be disposed of first, before the substantive suit.
“So, in that wise, whatever appointment he (receiver manager) may have got, or anybody, or any other person for that matter, will have to be in abeyance until the disposition of the interlocutory action. That is the position of the law.
“So, the advertorial by the power companies itself is very much in order. And that should serve as enough warning or deterrent to anybody claiming to be a receiver manager.
“He may have been appointed before now, but the restraining order pushes any other into some backwaters for now, so he can’t function as a receiver manager as it is.
“From the point of the law, the companies mentioned are not in receivership, or they cannot be said to be in receivership for now.
“Any receiver manager that may have been appointed cannot function in that capacity until, again, as I said, until the determination of the interlocutory action, because what they have is a restraining order.
“They are effectively restrained by the judgment of the Federal High Court,” Dr. Asaju said.
