Folawiyo seeks injunction against AMCON’s exparte orders

A Lagos-based businessman, Mr. Tunde Folawiyo, has filed an exparte motion before a Federal High Court in Lagos, seeking an order to stay execution on ex-parte orders made against him in satisfaction of a judgment debt.

Justice Lewis Allagoa had made orders against Folawiyo in a suit filed by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) over Folawiyo’s alleged unpaid debt of N727.9 million in relation to a company directorship at Compagnie Generale de Logistique.

Folawiyo, in a suit no: FHC/L/CS/799/2020, is seeking an order to stay execution of the ex-parte orders made against him on March 24, 2022 pending the hearing and determination of his Motion on Notice seeking to set aside the exparte orders.

He is praying for the following relief: An order restraining the AMCON either by itself, agents, privies, servants or through any person(s) from taking any steps howsoever to enforce the ex-parte order made against the applicant by the Court on 24th March 2022 pending the hearing and determination of the applicant’s Motion on Notice seeking to set aside the exparte orders.

The ex-parte orders were predicated on the judgment of Justice Ibrahim Buba in Suit No: FHC/L/CS/207/2017; Asset Management Company of Nigeria (“AMCON”) v Compagnie Generale De Logistique & Others in 2017 (“Previous Suit”) in favour of AMCON in the sum of N522,464,978.66 against the defendants in the suit.

The applicant said he was not a party to the previous suit and was not served with the judgment on it. AMCON claimed the applicant is a director in Compagnie Generale De Logistique, which took loan from Spring Bank, but the applicant said he was not a Director of Compagnie Generale De Logistique at the time of the previous suit and was not in any way connected to the loan with Spring Bank.

The applicant said he is, therefore, not a “debtor” within the contemplation of Section of 61 of the AMCON Act, as to warrant the interim forfeiture of his assets and freezing of his bank accounts based on the judgment obtained in the 2017 suit.

He argued that a combined reading of Sections 49(2),50(2) and 61 of the AMCON Act would reveal that only current directors of a company fall within the definition of “debtor” as to warrant the freezing of their assets or accounts.
 
Folawiyo informed the court that AMCON failed to disclose or suppress material facts about the status of the applicant in Compagnie Generale De Logistique, the principal judgment debtor in the previous suit.