Sadiq is a Partner in the Dispute Resolution practice at TEMPLARS. He also straddles the Media, Entertainment, Technology, Intellectual Property & Sports (METIS) and Real Estate Practice where he acts as the team lead.
He has over 25 years of experience advising and representing national and multinational clients in complex disputes spanning diverse areas of law. He is sought after for his expertise in real estate, land administration and property disputes, and in estate administration, trusts, inheritance and contentious wealth transfer matters.
Sadiq’s wider practice spans commercial litigation and appellate advocacy, arbitration and mediation, oil spill and environmental claims, data protection, privacy and cybersecurity, debt recovery and insolvency.
He has appeared before all levels of courts and tribunals across Nigeria and advises and represents high-profile multinational and domestic clients in high-value contractual, commercial, regulatory and investment-related disputes involving public and private sectors. He is a seasoned trial lawyer and has earned a reputation as a dogged and incisive advocate.
Sadiq holds a Master of Laws (LLM) in Commercial and Environmental Law from the University of Lagos. He is a Notary Public of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a member of the International Bar Association and the Nigerian Bar Association, and a Fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, UK (Nigeria Branch) and the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators.
A Selection of Relevant Experience
• Successfully represented Azura Power West Africa, an independent power producer, before the High Court of Edo State in a dispute overcompensation for land compulsorily acquired by the Edo State Government for a power project developed under a public-private partnership. Although the State had revoked the original rights of occupancy and compensated the title holders, certain parties continued to demand compensation from Azura.
• Advising Pinestar on all aspects of the development of a 12-storey A grade ultramodern office complex in Victoria Isalnd, Lagos, including obtaining necessary pre-construction and construction permits and approvals for the Project and subcontractor works.
• Leads the team representing a multinational marketer and distributor of medical products in proceedings brought against it before the High Court of Lagos State, the Court of Appeal and now the Supreme Court, over a multimillion Naira claim arising from an alleged breach of a special power of attorney and a distributor agreement.
• Team lead advising and representing Nokia Solutions and Networks Nigeria Limited in court proceedings arising from a breach of a management services contract by a telecommunications company, and for the recovery of N7 billion due to Nokia under the contract.
• Successfully represented a multinational information technology company in a claim to enforce the right to erasure of personal data under the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation 2019 (akin to the “right to be forgotten” under Article 17 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation) before the High Court of Lagos State.
• Represented Total Engineering Services Team Inc. in a multi-million-dollar arbitration initiated by Chevron Texaco over the alleged breaches of indemnity and insurance clauses in a service contract. Obtained an award in part reducing the client’s liability by over half of the claim.
• Led the team that successfully defended a world-class American information technology company and its Nigerian representative in a landmark online defamation case before the High Court of Lagos State. The claimant sought damages of N600 million (circa US$1.7 million) for defamatory statements posted by third parties on a blog created on Google’s Blogger platform. The decision is the first by a Nigerian court on the liability of an internet service provider for offensive third-party content posted on its digital platforms.
• Part of the team that represented the Nigerian subsidiary of IHS Towers, Africa’s Largest Telecommunications Tower Company in an arbitration arising out of a US$200 million claim from its counterparty, SWAP Technologies, and its alter ego, Olatunde Titilayo, under a Managed Services and Collation Collocation Services Agreement (MCSA) and was able to reduce the potential liability of IHS from US$200 million to ~US$9 million (less than 5% of SWAP’s claim) at the arbitration. Further represented the same client in a post-arbitration proceeding in which the client successfully applied to set aside ~$6.7 million of the ~US$9 million award-debt (over 70%) of the awarded sum on ground of inconsistency in the Award.
• Led the team that successfully defended Alcatel-Lucent, a multinational telecommunications equipment company, against a multi-billion Naira claim before the High Court of Lagos State. The claim arose from an alleged breach of a frame agreement between the company and one of its contractors.
• Led the team that successfully defended Puma Energy, a multinational mid- and downstream energy trading company, against a multimillion-dollar claim for an alleged breach of an agreement to pay an agency or facilitation fee for the brokerage of a joint venture arrangement and the acquisition of bitumen facilities. The claim for damages of US$4,100,000 against the company was dismissed.
• Part of the team that defended an international oil company in several lawsuits brought by individuals and communities in the Niger Delta region and Lagos, arising from a rupture in the Idoho oil pipeline that resulted in the spill of over 40,000 barrels of crude oil.
• Part of the team that represented Upstream S. A. Actis LLP and Ayyra Systems Limited in a dispute involving a claim of N5billion Naira (approx. US13.9 Million) relating to claims for inducing breach of contract, loss of future earnings and business opportunities arising from alleged breach of exclusivity and non-circumvention provisions of a collaboration agreement to explore promotion businesses in the telecom industry in Nigeria.
• Advised Riverview Terraces Limited, a subsidiary of Petralon Energy Limited in connection with acquisition of parcel of land in Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lagos.
• Advised Chronodexia Investment on its acquisition and development of approximately 10.04 hectares of land in Lekki, Lagos, including the procurement of pre-construction and construction permits and other approvals, and the preparation of the land transfer documents.
Expertise
Dispute Resolution, Real Estate/Private Wealth Management, METIS and Data Protection.
