Release Dr Akintoye Akindele, Interim MD Of Duport Midstream Company Limited Now-Associates, Friends Tell 1GP

By Akeem Oduyoye

The associates and friends of the Interim MD of Duport Midstream Company Limited Dr Akintoye Akindele have called the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun to immediately release Akindele who is presently being detained in Abuja.

 Police in Lagos last week invaded Akindele residence in Ikoyi, in Lagos Island, searched his house before taken him away in their vehicle and detained  in police cell in the area. 

On Monday, he was moved to Abuja and as at the time of filing this report , he is yet to be released to his family. 

According to his associates and friends, who spoke with royaltimes.com on condition of anonymity, said his arrest may be in connection with the power tussle in the company, which is aimed at removing  Akindeleas MD of the company at all cost.

 They added that these faceless people within the company, who don’t want Akindele to be at the helm of the company, had made various allegations against him, which according to them is baseless and unfounded.

 “Some people in the company are hell bent in removing as MD of the company and take his position.  They cooked up various allegations against him, all aiming to tarnish his image and take over his position in the multibillion naira company which has been doing very well under the leadership of Akindele, ”an associate tells royaltimes.com.

 A friend of Akindele, who also preferred anonymity, shares his associate sentiment. “All this negative campaign against Akindele is aimed removing him as MD of the company. I heard from a reliable source that Akindele antagonists in the company had perfected plan to sell the company to a prominent billionaire if they succeeded in removing him at as MD of the company” he said.

“That is why they have orchestrated invite and arrest by the police as well as the coordinated social media campaign against him and eventually his arrest,” his friend added. 

“We appeal to IGP to thoroughly investigate the circumstances surrounding the arrest of Akindele and release him to his family. Akindele is innocent of all the allegations leveled against him. We beg you in the name of God to release the innocent. His current ordeal is as a result of power tussle in the company” another Akindele’s associate added. 

Recently, Akindele’s legal team in one page Public Notice obtained by royaltimes.com,  said these faceless people are doing this as part of the extra judicial measures being used by those seeking to wrestle control of his business from him. 

The legal team, which said, they are very much on top of the situation, sying the rule of law will surely prevail at the end the day. They called on the members of the public to disregard the media campaign to malign the good name of Akindele. The legal also said all the allegations leveled against their client are figments of imagination, with no iota of truth.

They also called on the public and investors in the various operations of Duport Midstream Company Limited to remain calm as everything is being done to ensure that the fortunes of the company remain unaffected. 

The legal team said the issue in the company is in the court at the moment, saying Justice I.N. Oweibo of the Federal High Court, sitting in Lagos recently set aside an ex parte order illegally obtained by misrepresentation of material facts in the case between DuportEnergy Limited v. DuportMidstream Company Limited & others.  

Duport Energy Limited, an 18% shareholder in concert with others are allegedly aiming to take over the control of Duport Midstream Company Limited through its minority shareholding. 

The legal team in the notice said It was alleged that in a bid to achieve the aforesaid takeover of management control, the aforesaid minority directors are disruptive by subjecting all decisions regarding the day-to-day running of the company to Board deliberations.  

Consequently, Platform Capital Investment Partners Limited, the majority shareholder of Duport Midstream Company Limited with 74% shareholding sought to remove the disruptive directors from the Board.

 Duport Energy Limited sought to prevent the removal of its allegedly disruptive nominated directors. Duport Energy Limited filed the aforesaidsuit despite its awareness and those of its directors about the existence of aninitial suit at the instance of Duport Midstream Company Limited on the same subject matter. In the initial case, Suit No. FHC/L/CS/729/2023 between Duport Midstream Company Limited v. Duport Energy Limited & 4 Ors., Duport Midstream Company Limited, Duport Midstream Company Limited complained that through their actions, Duport Energy Limited, Mr. OluwatosinOdusanya, Dr. OladipoAdeniyi, Mrs. Mobolaji Kuku and Dr. ZulikatWuraola Abiola are aiming to wrestle control of the company from the constituted management through minority shareholding.

Other related cases include Suit No. FHC/L/SC/1235/2023 between Platform Capital Investment Partners Limited and Anor.v. Regents Forte Limited and Anor. and Suit No. LD/ADR/5012/2023 between Dr. AkintoyeAkindele v. Mr. OluwatosinOdusanya. Duport Midstream Company Limited operates an Energy Parkin Egbokor, Edo State with the capacity of 2500 barrels with potential for expansion to 10,000 barrels per day. 

The Duport Midstream Company Limited Energy Park contains a 5 Megawatts Plant Capacity, a 60 Million SCF Gas Processing Plant, 10 Million SCF Compressed Natural Gas Plant, 30,000 MT Refined Product Terminal and a Tier IV Data Centre. By a Product Sale Agreement, Duport Midstream Company Limited contracted on Summit Oil International Limited for supply of crude oil for its operations.

 However, the aforesaid Summit Oil International Limited has failed, neglected and refused to perform. 

Consequently, the management of Duport Midstream Company Limited under the leadership of Akindele sought an alternative source of crude supply, and the Duport Midstream Company Limited Energy Park is functional. 

The Duport Midstream Company Limited Energy Park is currently operational, having been licensed by all regulatory authorities to carry out the business of refining crude and supplying oil products to downstream oil companies.

 The Executive Governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki inspected the Energy Park last year and expressed his satisfaction on the state of the facility. Akindele, who is also Chairman of Platform Capital, is a flamboyant serial entrepreneur .

His profile is intimidating. He parades a long list of corporate awards such Honouree for Service to Young People (Future Africa Awards 2022), Oil & Gas CEO of The Year (Business Day 2022), Most Influential People of African Decent (Hall of Fame 2022), African Business Leader of the Year (Africa Leadership Magazine 2022), Congressional Commendation Award (State of Georgia 2021), Business Accessibility and Inclusion Champion (FEMNET 2022). 

Akindele believes that African people can develop local technology as solutions to their problems but lack funding to start up their business ideas. He took an interest in becoming a chemical engineer at a young age because he feared hunger and poverty.

 He later realised that engineering was not the correct path for him since he hoped to discover new inventions but was rather tasked to take care of equipment from overseas. 

After completing a PhD in finance in France, he launched Platform Capital to invest in businesses with innovative ideas.