Court hears suit to stop First Bank’s extraordinary AGM on April 24

Justice Akintayo Aluko of a Federal High Court, Lagos has fixed April 24, for hearing of a motion seeking to stop Extraordinary Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the First Bank Holdings Plc, scheduled to hold on April 30.

The court fixed the date in motion filed by one of the First Bank’s shareholders, Mr. Olusegun Samuel Onagoruwa, through his counsel, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa.

Aside First Bank Holding Plc, other respondents in the suit are; the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Alhaji Ahmed Abdullahi; Non-Executive Director, Mr. Julius Omodayo-Owotuga, and Group Managing Director, Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo.

The plaintiff in a motion notice dated  April 17, 2024, is seeking an order the court restraining First Bank Holdings and its Board of Directors, their agents, employees, servants, Officers, directors, privies or anyone acting on their behalf or at their behest, from conveying, conducting and/or holding the first respondents’ Extraordinary General Meeting scheduled to hold virtually on the April 30, 2024, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive action.

“An order restraining First Bank Holdings Plc and its Board of Directors, their Agents, Employees, Servants, Officers, Directors, Privies or anyone acting on their behalf or at their behest, from conveying, conducting and/or holding any meeting of the first respondents whether physically or virtually, capable of undermining, subverting, compromising, eroding and/or rendering nugatory and/or worthless, the Order of this Honorable Court made on July 15, 2022 and the substantive action filed by the Applicant, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive action.”

“An order setting aside, nullifying, annulling and/or quashing all the meetings of First Bank Holdings Plc held during the life span of the Order of this Honorable Court made on July 15, 2022, including the decisions and resolutions reached at such meetings and the steps already taken by the Directors, Officers, Agents, Servants and Employees of the 1st respondent in a bid to execute, actualize, objectify and implement the said resolutions and decisions reached at such meetings.”

The applicant, in the affidavit in support of the motion deposed to by Babatunde Muyideen, stated that applicant approached the court through a petition on July 6, 2022 to determine the questions relating to his rights as a shareholder, unfair treatment and the validity of the second to fourth respondents’ appointments, same having not been approved by the shareholders of the first respondent.