Exparte Orders have often been notoriously abused in the Nigerian legal system by unscrupulous parties who would go to any length to mislead the court to grant an order based on half-truths or nonexistent facts.
In a significant victory for General Hydrocarbons Limited (GHL), the Federal High Court in Lagos has overturned a Mareva injunction that froze the assets of the company and its directors.
The court, affirming the arguments presented by GHL’s counsel, Abiodun Layonu, SAN, as well as Olumide Aju, SAN, who represented the second to fifth defendants, ruled that the injunction violated an existing order from a court of concurrent jurisdiction.
In his ruling, Justice Dehinde Dipeolu stated that the Mareva injunction should be set aside when compared to an earlier order issued by Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa in Suit No. 1953. The court found that First Bank of Nigeria and FBNQuest Ltd, who sought the injunction, failed to fully disclose Justice Lewis-Allagoa’s order, making the Mareva injunction incompatible with the previous ruling.
Consequently, the court agreed with GHL and the second to fifth defendants that First Bank deliberately “suppressed facts” to mislead the court into granting the order against GHL. As a result, the court had no option but to lift the freezing order affecting GHL’s accounts and those of all other defendants in the case which include the founder and Chairman of the ThisDay/Arise Media Group, Nduka Obaigbena.
First Bank had approached the court with an ex parte application against General Hydrocarbons Limited and 15 other entities, even though there was already a ruling in place.
In response to the suit, GHL and other defendants urged the court to discharge the order that froze their assets, arguing that the court had been misled into granting it.
GHL contended that the order was obtained through fraudulent misrepresentation and concealment of material facts. The oil firm and the other applicants accused First Bank of misleading the court to secure orders against them. They asserted that had all the relevant facts been presented to the trial judge, the order against them would not have been granted. The trial judge ultimately upheld GHL’s arguments and set aside the freezing order.
Meanwhile, GHL’s directors, also adversely affected by the ex parte freezing order, have initiated legal proceedings worldwide against First Bank, seeking $1 billion each in damages for defamation and wrongful freezing of their accounts. Additionally, GHL is filing a complaint with the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee against First Bank lawyers, Babajide Koku, SAN, and Victor Ogude, SAN, for unprofessional conduct.
