By Adesina Soyooye
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Judge says Bank deliberately suppressed relevant facts.
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GHL Directors, each, suing First Bank For $1billion.
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Judge Lifts injunction which froze accounts of GHL & Directors
Victory came the way of General Hydrocarbons Ltd, GHL, Wednesday, January 29, 2025, when a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, overturned a freezing order slammed on the accounts and assets of the Company and its Directors, worldwide.
In a ruling which has been described as a “landmark ruling”, the Honourable Justice Dehinde Dipeolu, set aside an earlier order issued by the Honourable Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allaogoa in suit No 1953 slammed on the Company’s accounts and assets and those of its Directors.
The court upheld the arguments of GHL’s counsel, Abiodun Layonu, SAN and the arguments of Olumide Aju, SAN representing both of whom represented the 2nd to 5th defendants in the case. The Court held that “the injunction violated an existing order from a court of concurrent jurisdiction.”
Justice Dehinde Dipeolu, in his ruling stated that when compared with an earlier order issued by “Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa in Suit No. 1953, the Mareva Injunction should be set aside.”
It also stated that First Bank of Nigeria and FBNQUEST LTD, at which request the order was given, “failed to fully disclose Justice Lewis-Allagoa’s order, which made the Mareva Injunction incompatible with the earlier ruling.”
Therefore, the Court agreed with GHL and the 2nd to 5th defendants that First Bank “deliberately suppressed facts to mislead the Court into granting the (freezing) order against GHL.
Based on that, the Court said it had no choice but to set aside the order freezing GHL accounts as well as the accounts of all the other defendants in the case.
In an ex-parte application, First Bank had asked the court to grant i5s application against General Hydrocarbons Limited and 15 other entities even when the bank was aware of a subsiting judgement.
In response to the suit, GHL and the other defendants asked the Court to lift the order freezing its assets and accounts on the grounds that the Court was misled in granting same.
GHL, oil firm promoted by Prince Nduka Obaigbena, told the Court that the order was obtained “through fraudulent misrepresentation and concealment of material facts.” They told the Court that First Bank misled the court to obtain the freedom orders against them.
If all the facts were presented to the trial Judge, their Counsels argued, the order against them would not have been granted.
The Judge, therefore, upheld GHL’s arguments and as a result, set aside the freezing order.
In another development, GHL Directors, affected by the ex parte freezing order have begun actions worldwide against First Bank, seeking “$1bn each in damages for defamation and wrongful freezing of their accounts.”
GHL did not also spare First Bank’s Lawyers, Babajide Koku, SAN, and Victor Ogude, SAN. It is dragging both senior Lawyers before the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee for alleged unprofessional conduct.
First Bank alleges that GHL is owing it in the excess of $200m, an allegation GHL strongly denies.
