An indigenous oil company, Matrix Energy Ltd, has filed a lawsuit before a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court seeking N20 billion in damages over reports linking it to the alleged importation of low-grade fuel from Malta. The company and its CEO, Alhaji Abdulkadir Adisa Aliu, are the plaintiffs in the Suits CV/3718/2024 and CV/3719/2024. They described the reports published by BusinessDay Media Ltd. and Cable Media and Publishing Ltd as libellous.
In a suit filed by their counsel, Ahmed Raji, SAN, the plaintiffs are asking the court for an order to restrain the two media houses from further publishing libellous reports against them. The company is seeking N10 billion each as damages from the two media houses and an additional sum to cover the cost of filing the suit.
According to the suit numbered CV/3718/2024, the report titled, ‘From Russia to Malta: How Matrix Energy imports dirty petrol’, alleged that the oil company had been importing substandard petroleum products from Malta, a country with no known oil refineries. Denying the allegation, the plaintiffs asked the court for a declaration that the defendants’ publications on Aug. 17, 2024, were false, malicious, libellous, and defamatory. They also asked for an order compelling the defendants to delete or cause the libellous/defamatory words in the publications to be deleted and immediately retracted.
The plaintiffs also demanded an unreserved apology for the publications and an order to refrain from further publishing libellous or defamatory words or stories about them. They informed the court that reports published by the defendants “deliberately, carelessly, intentionally and maliciously” portrayed them as conniving with Nigeria’s economic enemies to import adulterated, substandard, or low-quality petroleum products into the country.
