Human Rights Activist and Lawyer, Maxwell Opara Esq has dragged the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Senate President, AGF & 4 others to court Over Purported Sale of Polaris Bank without following due process, seeking injunctions from the Court to stop the sale.
The case which was before Federal High Court, Sitting at Abuja, suit no: FHC/ABJ/CS/1847/2022, between Maxwell Opara v. CBN, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, PRESIDENT, The Nigerian Senate, the Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon A. G. Federation, Federal Ministry of Finance, Polaris Bank Ltd, was instituted via an Originating Summons where in the Plaintiff sought the Court to determine the following questions:
1. Whether, by the combined effects of Sections 28 and 6 (5) of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria Act, 2010 (as amended), the 1st, 2nd and 6th Defendants are right to acquire an eligible bank (Polaris Bank) for over N1.2 trillion and then purport to sell same for N40 billion, without publishing and making widely available the valuation basis and have recourse to public interest to forebear such a cost?
2. If the answer to the above question is negative, whether the approval of the Minister of Finance acting on the recommendation of the Central Bank of Nigeria was indeed obtained, and if yes, if it was given in the public interest to forebear the loss of such an amount of money?
Consequently upon the determination of the above questions by the Court, the Plaintiff prayed that the Court Order that CBN, ASSET MANAGEMENT CORPORATION OF NIGERIA, Federal Ministry of Finance, cannot approve the said sale having not gone through correct process, cease to continue the sale and that an investigation be launched into how Polaris bank was acquired.
Accompanying the Originating Summons was a 14 paragraph Affidavit in support of the motion, wherein the plaintiff alleged that the cause of action arose when he read in Peoples Gazette online news medium about the proposed sale of Polaris Bank, which was acquired by the 2nd Defendant, and that the said Polaris Bank was acquired by the 2nd Defendant, with the approval of the 1st and 6th Defendants at the whopping cost of N1.2 trillion Naira, while the basis for the valuation before acquisition of Polaris Bank was not made public same as the parameter for the valuation of Polaris Bank at N40 billion Naira.
In the plaintiff’s written argument, he submitted that the defendants were in violation of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria Act, 2010 (as amended), especially Section 6 (5) and Section 28, which established that any sale of an acquired bank asset without publishing the parameter for the valuation first made to the public, it will be against public interest to allow such a transaction to proceed or stand.
In addition to all these, the plaintiff filed an motion ex parte accompanied with a 14 paragraph affidavit and written argument where in the Plaintiff sought that the Court grant the injunctions sought even in the absent of the defendants. According to the Plaintiff, the purpose of the motion was to restrain the 1st, 2nd and 6th Defendants/Respondents from embarking on such a sales transaction in flagrant disregard of the law regulating such transactions in the interest of justice.
At the time this news was reported, a date had not been fixed for hearing.
Credit: The Nigeria Lawyers