FBN Holdings Plc has asked the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, to nullify an ex-parte order granted by Justice Nicholas Oweibo of the Federal High Court, which stopped the bank’s Annual General Meeting (AGM).
The Holding company, in a Notice of Appeal, filed on its behalf by its lawyers, led by Mutalubi Adebayo, SAN, is also asking the upper Court for an order allowing its appeal and an order directing that a different Judge of the Federal High Court, Lagos be assigned to hear the substantive matter.
The lawyer further argued that the lower court lacked the jurisdiction to grant the ex-parte order because the condition precedent under the Federal High Court Rules for the hearing of the suit was not met by the petitioners.
Three aggrieved FBN Holdings Plc shareholders, Olojede Adewole Solomon, Adebayo Oluwafemi Abayomi, and Ogundiran Emmanuel Adejare, had approached the court presided over by Justice Nicholas Oweibo, seeking an order stopping the bank’s Annual General Meeting scheduled for August 15 pending the hearing of their suit number FHC/L/CP/1575/23.
In his ruling delivered on August 9, 2023, Justice Oweibo, directed FBN Holdings Plc not to hold its scheduled and statutory AGM until the issues before the court were resolved.
However, FBN Holdings Plc, in its appeal filed on six grounds of law, urged the appellate court to set aside the ex-parte order and that it should assign the matter to a new judge for hearing.
Credit: The Nigeria Lawyer