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Originally Posted by Stockbear
So, Is there anything stopping Makoju, as the former CEO of WAPCO from giving away their trade secrets, if there is such a thing as that? Are there any laws preventing this from happening in Nigeria?
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Stockbear, basically the law frowns at what in legal jargon is refered to as 'contract in restraint of trade' i.e. a situation where an employer by contract, tries to stop an employee from working for a competitor after the employee has left his employment.
Whether a clause in restraint of trade is valid or not will depend on whether the clause is reasonable when weighed against the interest of the parties and the public. An employer has a legimate interest in preventing his trade secrets from being disclosed to a competitor by restraning a former employee from working for a competitor but the duration and geographical limit of the restraint must be reasonable.
In the context of Makoju, assuming that his contract of employment with WAPCO contained such a restriction, I do not think that his former employers will have a good case. This is because the man left the services of the company a long time ago to work for another employer and is now moving from that employment to another. In my view, it would be unreasonable to expect the restraint to still be effective after so many years. I hope I do make sense.