The Court of Appeal sitting in Kaduna has dismissed an application for a stay of execution filed by former House of Representatives member, Hon. Sani Sha’aban, seeking to halt the auction of some of his properties.

The application sought to suspend the execution of a Kaduna State High Court judgment that ordered the auction of certain assets belonging to Sha’aban to offset a debt owed to Alhaji Umar Faruk Abdullahi following an alleged breach of a loan agreement.

Counsel to the appellant, Halima Fumilola Olodo, had urged the court to grant a stay of execution and an extension of time regarding the High Court judgment.

She argued that the court should allow her client the opportunity to repay the outstanding debt rather than permit the creditor to proceed with the auction of the assets.

However, counsel to the respondent, Abdullahi Yahya (SAN), informed the court that the appellants had failed to comply with procedural requirements from the onset of the appeal.
He cited alleged non-compliance with rules governing the filing of appeals and the appellant’s failure to obey the lower court’s directive on the timeline for repayment of the debt.

Yahya also urged the court to award costs against the appellants, arguing that the application had wasted judicial time and disregarded the earlier order of the lower court.
In her ruling, Justice Onyekachi Aja Otisi dismissed the application on grounds of non-compliance with the Court of Appeal Rules governing the filing of appeals.
The court also awarded costs of ₦200,000 against the appellants.

Reacting to the judgment, Yahya said the dismissal had cleared the way for the enforcement of the lower court’s judgment ordering the auction of some assets belonging to Sha’aban to recover the outstanding debt owed to Abdullahi.

On her part, Olodo confirmed that the application was dismissed due to non-compliance with certain procedural requirements for filing an appeal before the Court of Appeal.
The dispute arose from a loan agreement executed in 2018 between Sha’aban, also known as Dan Buran Zazzau, and Abdullahi.

According to court documents, the loan was provided to assist Sha’aban in securing his release from detention in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), following legal challenges he faced there in the same year.

The judgment creditor reportedly advanced a total of $1 million and ₦11.2 million to Sha’aban under an interest-free loan arrangement based on Islamic financial principles. The agreement stipulated that the loan would be repaid within six months and in the same currency in which it was advanced.

The agreement was reportedly prepared and witnessed by Sha’aban’s legal representatives, signed initially by his son and later countersigned by Sha’aban upon his return to Nigeria.

Court records indicate that Sha’aban repaid $290,762 of the $1 million loan but allegedly failed to settle the outstanding balance, leading to the legal action and subsequent judgment.