Four executive directors of Cadbury Schweppes’s Nigerian subsidiary have resigned less than six months after an accounting scandal that led to the ousting of its chief executive and finance director.

The four directors — Teju Bogunjoko, Biodun Jaji, Segun Oyewole and Gabriel Onabote — were not implicated in any wrongdoing. They are believed to have resigned last month.

In December, Cadbury said that Bunmi Oni, the chief executive of Cadbury Nigeria, and Ayo Akadiri, the finance director, had been “relieved of their positions”.

The confectionery group said that it had discovered “a significant and deliberate overstatement” of Cadbury Nigeria results after increasing its stake in the business from 46.4 per cent to 50.02 per cent in February 2006. Announcing its full-year results in February, Cadbury said that the problems in Nigeria had hit its 2006 earnings by up to £53 million.

The resignations came as a court in Lagos heard arguments from lawyers representing more than 300 Cadbury Nigeria shareholders, who are suing the company, claiming that they had “suffered a huge loss” as a result of the overstatement of Cadbury Nigeria’s financial position.

A lawyer for the shareholders said that they plan to file an application to include Cadbury Schweppes because it owned a majority stake.

“By implication, they are a necessary party to this action because whatever decision is taken by the court will affect their own position,” he said. “They haven’t done anything wrong, but they will tell us what they did right.” A representative for Cadbury Schweppes declined to comment.

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