FBN Holdings prays court to set aside order stopping AGM

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 company, in a notice of appeal filed on its behalf by its team of lawyers, led by Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mutalubi Adebayo, is 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 jurisdiction to grant the ex-parte order because the petitioners did not meet the condition precedent under Federal High Court Rules for hearing of the suit.

Three aggrieved FBN Holdings Plc shareholders, Olojede Adewole Solomon, Adebayo Oluwafemi Abayomi, and Ogundiran Emmanuel Adejare, had approached the lower court, seeking an order stopping the bank’s AGM, scheduled for August 15, pending hearing of their suit, marked 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 order that the matter be assigned to another judge for hearing.

The appellant argued that the trial judge erred in law, when he granted the prayer sought by the respondents in their motion ex-parte, dated August 8, 2023, while they were seeking the same relief in their substantive suit before the same court.

Adebayo contended that by granting the respondents’ prayer, the judge prejudged the substantive issues even before they were heard.

The lawyer also submitted that the lower court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the respondents’ suit and also to grant the prayers sought in the motion ex-parte, when the condition precedent for hearing of urgent action during the long vacation of the court was not fulfilled.