Nestoil lenders say tycoon Ernest Azudialu still owes $1 billion despite Supreme Court win

The consortium of banks and financial institutions locked in a multibillion-dollar debt recovery battle with Ernest Azudialu-Obiejesi's Nestoil Limited has issued a sharp public rebuttal to what it described as false reporting of the Supreme Court's June 1 ruling, insisting the judgment resolved nothing about the underlying debt and that recovery action has only just begun.

In a statement published Monday, the lenders said the apex court's decision was "at best, a pyrrhic victory" for Nestoil and Neconde Energy, and moved to correct what they characterized as a deliberate misreading of the ruling's scope.

"The Supreme Court's decision DID NOT remove the Receiver/Manager," the lenders said in the statement. "The decisions also did not declare that Nestoil is not owing its humongous indebtedness to the Nestoil Lenders."

The total debt claimed by the consortium now stands at $1,084,157,611.20 and 469.4 billion naira. Of that, the lenders say the amount currently overdue and unpaid is $240,512,240.98 and 141.2 billion naira — the portion that fell due and was not serviced following a restructuring that became effective in 2023.

The lenders said the June 1 ruling addressed only the narrow question of whether interim preservative orders granted by the Court of Appeal — which had frozen the personal accounts of Azudialu-Obiejesi and his wife Nnenna Obiejesi — remained valid. The Supreme Court found those specific orders had lapsed and directed parties back to the lower court to deal with the substance of the debt. The court-appointed receiver/manager, the lenders said, remains in place.

The statement offered a detailed account of how the debt accumulated. Nestoil first obtained bilateral loan facilities from eight lenders dating back to 2010, and according to the consortium, serially defaulted on repayment obligations across multiple facilities. The lenders agreed in good faith to restructure those loans into a global club arrangement for easier administration. Nestoil defaulted again after the restructuring took effect.

The lenders said evidence gathered during the dispute showed that Nestoil had been diverting funds that should have gone toward debt repayment into other companies owned or controlled by its principals. It was that finding, they said, that led the consortium to declare the entire facility immediately due and payable, seek court orders and appoint a receiver/manager over the companies' assets.

The statement also took aim directly at what it described as the recalcitrance of the borrower. "Gone are the days when borrowers believe they can treat shareholder and depositor funds with levity and expect to get away with such criminal impunity," the lenders said, adding that "every penny owed will be extracted and paid back."

The dispute has wound through Nigeria's courts for months in a series of rulings that have repeatedly been seized on by each side as vindication. In January 2026, the Court of Appeal stripped Nestoil and Neconde of their chosen legal team, ruling that the Azudialu-Obiejesi-led boards had lost authority to appoint counsel once a receiver/manager was in place. The Supreme Court reversed that ruling in April 2026, restoring senior advocates Wole Olanipekun and Muiz Banire to the case and sending the legal representation question back to the Federal High Court.

The June 1 ruling on the asset freeze orders was the next significant courtroom development. Billionaires.Africa reported on that ruling last week, and the lenders' rejoinder Monday suggests Nestoil or its principals used the outcome to project a broader legal victory than the courts had actually delivered.

The substantive debt dispute — whether the amounts claimed are owed, how they were incurred and what assets are available to satisfy them — has not yet been heard on the merits. That proceeding, which legal observers say could take years given the complexity of the claims and the number of institutions involved, will now return to the Federal High Court.

The Nestoil case has drawn wide attention in Nigeria's banking sector because of its scale and its implications for how lenders pursue recovery against large indigenous oil and gas companies. The Central Bank of Nigeria has separately ordered full provisioning of Nestoil-related loans at three Nigerian banks — UBA, Access Holdings and FCMB — blocking dividend payments to shareholders until the exposure is properly accounted for on those institutions' balance sheets.

Azudialu-Obiejesi has contested the basis and scale of the debt throughout the proceedings. His legal team did not issue a public response to Monday's lenders' statement as of press time.