The Indimi family feud has assumed a new dimension as Mohammed Indimi’s eldest son, Musatafa is challenging his sisters, Ameena and Zara’s $435 millio
The Indimi family feud has assumed a new dimension as Mohammed Indimi’s eldest son, Musatafa is challenging his sisters, Ameena and Zara’s $435 million dividend claim over Oriental Energy shares, their father’s company. Mustafa who is the managing director of Oriental Energy, is siding with his father and defending the company, a privately held oil firm and the cornerstone of Indimi’s fortune.
The company operates three key offshore assets in the Niger Delta: the Ebok Field, Okwok Field, and OML 115. Its Ebok Terminal also plays a vital role in storing and exporting crude oil.
In a sworn statement, he pushes back against his sisters’ claims that they were denied $420 million in dividends, including a $42 million portion they believe is rightfully theirs. This latest action follows an earlier lawsuit from the sisters, who initially alleged they were owed $435 million, raising questions about how the figures overlap across both cases.
In his affidavit, Mustafa firmly denies their allegations. He supports the company’s stance that no such $420 million dividend was ever declared and disputes their assertion that they were pressured into giving up their shares. According to his statement, Indimi legally acquired over 98 percent of his daughters’ shares in exchange for a $10 million payment.
Mustafa also confirmed that emails authorizing those payments came directly from their father.
The sisters’ case, filed in 2022, landed with Justice Evelyn Maha at the Federal High Court in Abuja. However, in 2024, she was transferred to another state before the defense could present its full argument. Instead of reassigning the case, as is standard practice, the Chief Judge granted her special permission to keep handling it. Since then, she has been commuting to Abuja for hearings, which has led to significant delays.
Frustrated by the slow pace, the sisters filed a second lawsuit last year before another judge in Abuja, Justice Emeka Nwite. This version of the case claims the dividend amount is $435 million—slightly higher than their earlier figure—and says they are owed $43.5 million. As a result, two nearly identical cases are now playing out in parallel courts, complicating an already tangled family dispute.
Recall that Ameena and Zara claim they are entitled to the amount, representing their combined 10 percent stake in the company and accuse their father of misleading them into signing away shares worth hundreds of millions of dollars, thus reducing their shareholdings. Their legal team contends that their individual five percent stakes in the company were reduced to just 0.6 percent each, stripping them of significant equity and resulting dividends.
The sisters further accuse their father of using intimidation tactics, coercion, to suppress their claims. The sisters want their father to account for the missing funds. They argue that the dividends, which were declared and yet remain unpaid to them, represent a breach of trust and transparency.
Indimi’s estimated net worth dipped from $670 million in 2014 to $500 million the following year, prompting Forbes to stop tracking his wealth. But despite that decline, he remains a major figure in Nigerian business circles, with additional investments including a significant stake in Jaiz Bank. While his personal fortune may have taken a hit, Oriental Energy still holds assets worth billions, highlighting the financial and emotional weight behind this family feud.
Even as the legal fight plays out, Indimi hasn’t taken his foot off the gas when it comes to business.
In December 2024, he unveiled a new Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel capable of holding up to one million barrels of oil. Slated for deployment to the Okwok Oil Field, production is expected to start at 17,000 barrels per day, ramping up to 30,000. The vessel is scheduled to leave Dubai in early 2025 and begin operations by midyear—potentially giving both Oriental Energy and Nigeria’s oil revenues a timely boost.
