Chairman of The Tourist Company of Nigeria Plc, Dr Anthony Idigbe (SAN), has dismissed his purported removal at the Emergency Board of Directors meeting held on July 22, 2025.

He stated that the issue of the removal of the chairman was not on the agenda.

In a statement by his aide, Philomena Philips, Idigbe highlighted the agenda of the meeting as follows: ?Opening, Apologies, Reading and adoption of the agenda, Disclosure of conflict of interest, Business of the day ? Consideration of the memo on the Securities and Exchange Commission?s (SEC) forensic audit findings and directives and their implementation thereof, and Closure of meeting.?

The statement reads: ?The removal of the chairman was not on the agenda.

?The chairman closed the meeting when the meeting became rowdy.

?The items on the agenda were not discussed.

?The company is still under regulatory action by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

?Appropriate reports have been made to the SEC by the SEC-appointed directors under the February 17, 2017, settlement agreement between the disputing shareholders of Alex Ibru/OMA Investment and RFC on the one hand and Goodie Ibru/AVI on the other hand in Ikeja Hotel Plc (IHPL), a company listed on the NGX and investor and substantial creditors of TCN, among other companies.

?The purpose of the regulatory intervention in IHPLC and its investee companies was to prevent the business from collapsing, restore corporate governance, and resolve the deadlock.

?Chief Idigbe is proud of the work he, the board and management have done over the years, leading to the share price moving from 70K in 2017 to NGN23 last week.

?The current contrived crisis from the agenda reproduced above is driven by the release on June 27, 2025, of the SEC?s findings and directives on the forensic audit conducted on the group by Deloitte.

?Shareholders, that is, Alex Ibru/OMA Investment/RFC group, who were dissatisfied with the SEC?s findings and directives, have taken their grievances to court.

?The attempt to make Chief Idigbe the issue is an afterthought and a disingenuous scheme to buy time.

?From the first day in 2017, when Chief Idigbe presided over the first meeting of the board of IHPLC and discovered that the agenda he approved for the meeting was altered without his knowledge, he applied and obtained the SEC and IHPLC board approval to have PUNUKA Nominees Ltd, now OOT Nominees Limited, as the Company Secretary.

?It has been so for eight years without complaint.

?The Nominations Committee of the TCN board reviews the performance of OOT Nominees Ltd. Periodically and has consistently approved their performance over the years.

?Although the aggrieved shareholders have gone to court and obtained orders against the SEC, they do not seem to have faith in the rule of law and instead seek to resort to self-help and utilise their perceived media influence to seek to obtain unlawful remedies through the unauthorised publication.

?Despite the above distraction, Chief Idigbe has vowed to remain focused on concluding the national duty and service of resolving the IHPLC problem, which is nearing completion.?

Idigbe, also Chairman of Ikeja Hotel Plc and Chairman, Hans Gremlin Limited, has over 40 years of experience in corporate governance, insolvency, business restructuring, arbitration, dispute resolution, privatisation, capital markets, mergers & acquisitions, and oil and gas. He has advised clients on several complex transactions.

He was licensed to practice law in Nigeria in July 1983 and Ontario, Canada, in June 2016. He was appointed Notary Public in 1989 and elevated to Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in July 2000.

He graduated from the University of Ife, Ile-Ife, in 1982 (LL.B.), winning the Justice Orojo prize as the best student in Company Law, the University of Lagos, Akoka (LL.M) in 1988, and the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) in 1997 (MBA).

He holds an LL.M. In Construction and Arbitration Law from Robert Gordon University, Scotland (2012), and a GPLLM from the University of Toronto (2015).

He also has a doctorate In cross-border insolvency from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (2022).

His dissertation was on Norm Life Cycle Theory and the role of INSOL International in shaping the 1997 UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency.

Veritas University, Abuja, awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in Law, LL.D. (Honoris Causa) on December 9, 2023.

Pope Francis elevated him to a Papal Knight of Saint Sylvester, the Great (KSS), and his investiture took place in September 2021.

He was a member of the Board of Directors (Trustees) of the Canadian Association of Nigerian Lawyers (CANL) for four years, retiring in 2024, and chairs the Board of Trustees of Dominican University, Ibadan.

He Is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Directors Nigeria (CIoD), INSOL International, the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, London, the Business Recovery and Insolvency Practitioners Association of Nigeria (BRIPAN) and the International Bar Association (IBA).

In addition, he is a member of the Association of International Energy Negotiators (AIEN), the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), the Lagos Court of Arbitration (LCA), the International Chamber of Commerce, Nigeria (ICCN), the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI), and the International Insolvency Institute (III).

He is an experienced corporate director knowledgeable in global capital market operations and business restructuring.

He chaired Capital Hotel Plc (2017 ? 2022) and currently chairs Ikeja Hotel Plc, listed on NGX, and The Tourist Company of Nigeria Plc (TCN).

His work resuscitating the Ikeja Hotel Group from collapse and shareholder and management deadlock has received several NGX awards and accolades.

He is also a director of Royal Exchange Plc, listed on NGX and chaired the Statutory Audit Committee of Seplat Energy Plc, listed on NGX and the London Stock Exchange (LSE) from 2015 to 2023.

He Is the Vice Chairman of Ardogreen Energy Limited, the operator of PPL 203 and chairs the board of Salus Trust Limited, a health maintenance organisation (HMO) and other private companies. Idigbe is also an independent director at PZ Industries Limited.

He was the past President of the Asaba Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ASACCIMA) from 2022 to 2025 and President of the Delta Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (DACCIMA) from December 12, 2022, to February 27, 2025.

He was elected the National Legal Adviser of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) from May 2023 to May 2025.

In May 2025, he was elected National Vice President, South-South, NACCIMA.

He holds a Corporate Director Certificate from Harvard Business School, a certificate in Blockchain Law from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Canada, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Business from Emeritus Business School, in collaboration with MIT and Columbia Business School.

Idigbe founded the Capital Market Solicitors Association (CMSA), a sectoral organisation for lawyers in the capital market and PUNUKA Foundation, a charity focused on children with special needs.

He chaired the 2017 Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) Legal Profession Regulation Review Committee, which reviewed the regulation of the legal profession in Nigeria.

In 2013, he was appointed the National Coordinator for Nigeria, World Bank Global Forum of Law, Justice and Development Project on Treatment of Shareholders? Rights in Insolvency of Companies (2013 to 2014); and in 2012, he was a member of the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force that reviewed petroleum operations in Nigeria and made significant recommendations.

In addition, he chaired the Technical Drafting Committee for the Bill that became the Investment and Securities Act 2007.

He recently chaired the review committee for the same law, resulting in the Investment and Securities Act 2025.

As a consultant to the Bureau of Public Enterprises, he, along with another competition law expert, drafted the bill that became the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission Bill Act, relating to anti-trust and competition law in Nigeria.

Idigbe was the consultant who drafted the IOD Charter Bill and was a member of the IOD Charter Committee, which pursued the promulgation of the law now passed as the Chartered Institute of Directors Act 2023 (CIoD Act 2023).

He serves as an active facilitator for the CIoD, providing training to its members.

His book, ?Legal Issues in Capital Market Operations in Nigeria? serves as a reference material for training and practice in corporate governance and capital market operations in Nigeria.

In December 2022, Idigbe won the Institute of Directors (IOD), now CIoD Anofi Guobadia Award for Leadership and Excellence in Directorship.

He is also the author of the book chapter titled ?Distressed Banks and Asset Management Companies ? Evaluating AMCON as a Bank Resolution Tool for Managing Non-Performing Loans in Nigeria?, in ?Bank Insolvency Law in Developing Economies,? edited by Kayode Akintola and Folashade Adeyemo and published by Routledge, 2023; pp.18-50.

Other publications include ?Innovations in New Civil Procedure Rules in Nigeria,? and ?ADR Practice in Nigeria? in ?ADR Client Strategies in the Middle East and Africa,? edited by Michaela Falls, Aspatore Books, 2009, pp. 67?91. (The Nation)

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