Barely two months after the Chairman of Innoson Motors, Innocent Chukwuma boasted that he will ‘take over’ Guarantee Trust Bank Limited the Supreme Court has dashed the automaker’s hope.
Last November, Chukwuma said it was a matter of time before he takes over the Mariam Olusanya-led commercial bank based on the N2.4 billion judgment debt he obtained from the Supreme Court on February 27, 2019. In his calculation, the debt has now accumulated to over N32 billion which gave him the power to take over the management of one of the biggest lenders in the country.
Chkwuma assured “all the customers of GTB that if I take over, I would still run it well. They shouldn’t fear. I haven’t done any business that fails. I will run it better than them. If they cannot pay me, I have no choice but to take over the management.”
But the apex court has now overturned its earlier ruling when dismissed an appeal by GTB on the N2.4 billion case, on the basis that it was deceived and misled by Innoson about the facts of the case.
On Friday, the panel of justices, in a judgment red by Justice Abdul Aboki said the judgment it earlier delivered could no longer stand having discovered that the court was misled by the defendant in the appeal marked: SC/694/2014 filed by GTB.
The court further held that it was misled by its Registry, which failed to promptly bring to the notice of the panel that it sat on the case on February 27, 2019, and that GTB had already filed its appellant’s brief of argument.
The judgment was based on an application by GTB seeking the re-listing of the appeal on the grounds that it was wrongly dismissed.
The apex court said the panel that sat on the case on February 27, 2019, being notified of the existence of the appellant’s brief of argument, would not have given the ruling which dismissed GTB’s appeal on grounds of lack of diligent prosecution.
The court ruled that it has now been intimated of new facts concerning the case, and based on Order 8 Rules 16 of the Supreme Court’s Rules, it has now set its earlier ruling on the matter aside.
Justice Abubakar further held that the Supreme Court is the only court that has the power to overturn its judgment if the circumstances demand such.
The circumstances, he said, include where there is any reason to do so, such as where any of the parties obtained judgment by fraud, default or deceit; where such a decision is a nullity or where it is obvious that the court was misled into giving a decision.
Justice Tijani held that the circumstances of the GTB case fall into the category of the rare cases where the Supreme Court could amend or alter its own order on the grounds that the said order or judgment did not present what it intended to record.
Justice Abubakar said the court is “convinced that at the material time that the appellant’s appeal was inadvertently dismissed by this court, there was in place, a valid and subsisting brief of argument filed by the applicant.
“It will be unjust to visit the sin of the court’s Registry on an innocent, vigilant, proactive and diligent litigant.
“It is obvious from the material before us, that there were errors committed by the Registry of this court, having failed to bring to the notice of the panel of Justices that sat in chambers on the 27th February 2019 that the appellant had indeed filed its brief of argument.
“This is a case deserving of positive consideration by this court. Having gone through all the materials in this application, therefore, I am satisfied that the appellant/applicant’s brief of argument was filed before the order of this court made on the 27th of February 2019 dismissing the applicant’s appeal”.
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