Mr Amaechi Ndili, Chairman/CEO of Lionstone Offshore Services Limited and Lionstone Company Limited
Justice Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe of a Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja has discharged and acquitted the Managing Director of Lionstone Offshore Services Limited and Lionstone Company Limited, Mr Amaechi Ndili, alongside his co-defendant, Mrs Njide Chizoba Ndili, and the two companies, of all criminal charges concerning a disputed sum of $4, 666, 234. 28 million USD, claimed by Hercules Offshore Nigeria Limited.
The judge ruled that the criminal prosecution of the defendants was an abuse of court process and an attempt to intimidate and coerce them over a disputed sum already determined through arbitration.
Discharging and acquitting the defendants, Justice Abike-Fadipe, in a decisive judgment delivered on September 16, 2026, upheld the defendants’ no-case submission and ruled that the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case against any of them on any of the four counts.
The ruling brought an end to a criminal prosecution instituted by the Office of the Inspector-General of Police over what the court found was, in substance, a civil and commercial dispute that had already passed through arbitration and judicial proceedings.
The defendants had faced allegations of conspiracy to steal, stealing by dishonest conversion, stealing funds held under direction, and stealing by persons having an interest in the property allegedly stolen.
The prosecution alleged that, between July 2012 and September 2013, the defendants dishonestly converted the disputed sum of $4,666,234.28 received from Addax Petroleum Development Nigeria Limited in connection with a contractual arrangement involving Lionstone Offshore Services Limited and Hercules Offshore Nigeria Limited.
The defendants were arraigned on an amended four-count charge on January 30, 2023. They firmly denied every allegation and pleaded not guilty to all counts.
During the trial, the prosecution called three witnesses and tendered several exhibits before closing its case on December 9, 2025.
At the close of the prosecution’s case, the defendants made a no-case submission, arguing that the evidence presented did not establish any criminal offence or provide a lawful basis for requiring them to enter a defence.
Justice Abike-Fadipe agreed.
In her judgment, the judge after carefully reviewed the principles governing no-case submissions and held that the prosecution was required to present legally admissible evidence linking the defendants to the alleged offences. The court found that this essential threshold had not been met.
Significantly, the court found that the disputed sum had already been the subject of arbitration and subsequent judicial proceedings.
Hercules Offshore Nigeria Limited had relied upon a Joint Bidding Agreement containing an arbitration clause. The dispute proceeded to arbitration, resulting in an award in favour of Hercules. On October 9, 2017, the Federal High Court in Lagos granted leave for the recognition and enforcement of the arbitral award relating to the disputed sum.
Against that background, Justice Abike-Fadipe questioned why the police were subsequently brought into a matter for which the parties had already invoked—and completed—the agreed civil dispute-resolution process.
The judgment made clear that the Nigeria Police Force is not an agency for recovering disputed sums. Once an arbitral award has been recognised by a court, its enforcement must proceed through the lawful judicial enforcement mechanisms established for that purpose.
Citing the Police Act 2020 and appellate authorities, including Haruna v. Sani, the court reaffirmed that the police’s powers to prevent and investigate crime do not extend to enforcing private commercial claims or recovering disputed sums arising from civil transactions.
The court’s findings exposed the criminal proceedings as an improper attempt to deploy the machinery of the police and the criminal justice system to intimidate and coerce the defendants into payment.
In effect, the police had been positioned as a piece in a bad game of chess: used to apply pressure in a commercial dispute after the claimant had already obtained an arbitral award and secured judicial recognition of that award.
Justice Abike-Fadipe held that the criminal prosecution amounted to an abuse of court process. The court refused to permit its proceedings—or the coercive powers of the police—to be used as instruments of intimidation in a dispute concerning a contested commercial sum.
The judgment therefore drew a firm distinction between legitimate criminal prosecution and the persecution of defendants through the misuse of criminal process.
Having found no legally sufficient evidence requiring the defendants to answer the charges, the court upheld their no-case submission and discharged and acquitted Mr Amaechi Ndili, Mrs Njide Chizoba Ndili, Lionstone Offshore Services Limited and Lionstone Company Limited on all counts.
The decision represents a complete vindication of the defendants and a strong judicial warning against using the police and criminal courts to exert pressure in civil and commercial disputes.