Justice Akintayo Aluko of the Federal High Court in Lagos has adjourned sine die (indefinitely) the suit filed against First Bank Holdings by its shareholder, Olusegun Samuel Onagoruwa, seeking to stop the bank’s Annual General Meeting (AGM).
The judge adjourned to allow the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal to hear and determine an appeal filed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) seeking to join the suit as an interested party.
Onagoruwa had applied for an order to stop the now-cancelled Extraordinary General Meeting of FBN Holdings earlier scheduled for April 30.
In the application, which is yet to be heard before the court adjourned indefinitely, Onagoruwa seeks the following reliefs: “An order 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 holding the first respondents’ Extraordinary General Meeting scheduled to hold virtually on the 30th day of April 2024, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive action.”
First Bank Holdings Plc, Ahmed Abdullahi, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Julius Omodayo-Owotuga, Non-Executive Director, and Group Managing Director, Nnamdi Okonkwo are the defendants.
Counsel for the defendants, Fred Onuobia (SAN), said their application challenging the court’s jurisdiction, an application to set aside the ex-parte order made by the court, and the petitioner’s contempt application against the defendants were for hearing.
He said his application was based on the appeal filed against the court’s ruling, which refused to join his client as a party.
He also told the court that the parties had exchanged briefs, and the Court of Appeal had fixed July 3 for hearing.
Adebowale urged the court to adjourn the matter until his appeal was determined.
Counsel for the petitioner, Adesoji Adedoyin, opposed the submission of the CBN’s counsel on the ground that there are contempt proceedings against all the defendants.
He told the court that the contempt proceedings had to do with the court’s order granted on July 15, 2022, which all the defendants allegedly disobeyed.
Onuobia, in his only response, told the court that he did not oppose the CBN’s application for adjournment.
He said if the court proceeds to hear the petitioner’s contempt application, he would urge it to listen to his application challenging its jurisdiction.
Justice Aluko held that since an appeal is before the Court of Appeal, the best thing to do was to stay further proceedings to await its verdict.
He, therefore, adjourned the matter sine die.