After three years search for justice, reprieve finally came the way of veteran image-maker, Ernest Omo-Ojo following the successful mediation by the Honourable Minister of State Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva leading to the withdrawal of the sack letter issued to him in June 2019 by Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil.
Acting swiftly on a petition dispatched to his office by Omo-Ojo to protest the seeming arbitrary termination of his appointment by the multinational oil corporation, the Minister in July last year, inaugurated a three-man committee, all directors, from the Ministry to investigate the matter and make recommendations to his office.
It was gathered that at the end of the sittings, which lasted about six months, the committee in January recommended that ExxonMobil should rescind the termination of Omo-Ojo’s appointment and approved his retirement from service.
The decision was subsequently endorsed by the HMSPR and conveyed to ExxonMobil for compliance.
Sources close to the Ministry conformed that ExxonMobil has since accepted the decision and complied by withdrawing the termination letter issued on June 14, 2019 and replaced it with a retirement letter which was promptly dispatched to Omo-Ojo. .
Prior to the termination of his employment, Omo-Ojo had received a suspension letter from MPNU on April 12, 2019, and on April 16, 2019, he submitted a petition to the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR (now Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority-NUPRC).
However, while arbitration was ongoing, Omo-Ojo received termination letter on June 14, 2019 thus subsequent meetings with the representatives of DPR and ExxonMobil to resolve the matter ended in a stalemate.
Dissatisfied by MPNU’s arbitrary action, Omo-Ojo filed a suit against the oil and gas multinational at the National Industrial Court, Abuja Division, seeking a nullification of the termination.
The matter was in court until the Minister’s intervention, which led to his withdrawal of the matter out of court to allow the mediation efforts.