The Federal High Court Sitting in Lagos has adjourned till September 5, the pending applications in the suit filed by some shareholders of First Bank against the First Bank of Nigeria Holdings from holding its Annual General Meeting.
The adjournment was fixed for hearing by Justice Akintayo Aluko after hearing submissions from parties involved in the suit.
One of the aggrieved shareholders in FBN Holdings, Mr. Sunday Aborisade, asked the court to set aside the court’s interim order earlier granted on July 29th which directed FBN Holdings not to proceed with its Annual General Meeting slated for August 15.
The application to set aside the order granted by Justice Nicholas Oweibo, was filed and moved by Aborisade’s counsel, Kazeem Gbadamosi, SAN.
When the matter came up for hearing on Wednesday, the applicant requested Justice Aluko that he should be joined as a party, adding that the AGM is “like a market which can not be stopped from holding.”
He said, “My Lord, the order ought not to have been made if the facts are laid bare before the court. I urge my Lord to set it aside. Apart from setting aside the order, I also urge the court to join me as a party, as the order affected me.
“Assuming the meeting was not held virtually, I would not have received my dividends. The AGM is like a market which can not be stopped from holding.”
Counsel for FBN Holdings, Mutalubi Adebayo, SAN, filed another application before the court seeking a stay of the proceedings before the court.
Justice Aluko refused the move by FBN Holdings to stay proceedings in the matter.
He added that the FBN did not challenge the jurisdiction of the court in its Notice of Appeal while noting that filing a Notice of Appeal is not an automatic ground for a stay of proceedings.
Counsel to the aggrieved shareholders, Muiz Banire, SAN, told the court that the application was not ripe for hearing. He also sought to draw the court’s attention to what he called the flagrant disobedience to the court’s interim order.
Justice Aluko noted that there were pending applications before the court which were not ripe for hearing. He adjourned till after the Annual General Conference of the NBA to enable all parties to file necessary responses to the pending applications.
Madukwe B. Nwabuisi is an accomplished journalist renown for his fearless reporting style and extensive expertise in the field. He is an investigative journalist, who has established himself as a kamikaze reporter.