Business
Fresh Trouble for Honeywell flour mills as Ecobank drags Management to court over N3.5bn debt
Ecobank Nigeria Limited has urged the Supreme Court to set aside a Court of Appeal verdict on its winding-up petition against Honeywell Flour Mills Plc over an alleged 3.5billion debt.
Justice Mohammed Yunusa of the Federal High Court in Lagos last December 4 froze Honeywell’s accounts following an application by Ecobank’s lawyer Mr. Kunle Ogunba (SAN) of the Insolvency Forte.
The judge later varied the order by allowing Honeywell to withdraw N15million per week pending hearing of the suit, which Honeywell appealed against.
The Court of Appeal ruled in Honeywell’s favour and discharged the restraining order.
But Ecobank has urged the Court of Appeal to grant an order of injunction retraining Honeywell from taking advantage of the order discharging the interim/varied order pending the determination of the case by the Supreme Court.
The bank said the interim order was made to preserve Honeywell’s funds in some banks, namely Zenith, Access, Citibank, Stand Chartered, Wema, Guarantee Trust, Fidelity and Ecobank until the case is determined.
“There is an urgent need to preserve the res (subject-matter) of the appeal to avoid foisting a situation of helplessness on the Supreme Court, a superior court of record,” Ecobank said.
The bank is urging the Supreme Court to set aside the entire judgment/decision of the Court of Appeal on the ground that the appellate court erred in law in setting aside the ex-parte orders made by Justice Yunusa.
The Court of Appeal, in the judgment delivered by Justice Abimbola Obaseki, set aside Justice Yunusa’s order on the ground of abuse of Order 4 of winding up rules.
But the bank is urging the Supreme Court to hold that the Winding-up Rules did not outlaw the issuance of ex-parte orders, among other ground.
Besides, it said the Winding-up Rules did not provide for ex-parte orders, adding that it was provided for in the court’s Civil Procedure Rules.
“The Winding-Up Rules is a subsidiary legislation and not elevated to the rank of a statute. Rule 4 of the Winding Up Rules only provided for applications inter-parties and thus created a lacuna as it relates to ex-parte applications which can only be filled by the Civil Procedure Rules of the court,” the bank said.
Ecobank also appealed against the dismissal of its appeal challenging the jurisdiction of Justice Mohammed Idris of the Federal High Court in establishing a customer banker’s relationship in a related case.
The Court of Appeal had held that there was a banker-customer relationship between the parties.
Bur the bank is praying the Supreme Court to hold that the Court of Appeal occasioned a gross miscarriage of justice by allowing the respondents the benefits of an “in-principle” agreement they were never party to.
Ecobank is also praying the Supreme Court to decide whether it was wrong to seek redress before other courts and whether it amounted to contempt of court.
“The learned justices of the Court of Appeal erred in law and occasioned a gross miscarriage of justice by failing to determine whether the learned trial judge, Justice Mohammed Idris, had power to even hear or consider the committal proceedings,” the bank said.
Ruling in favour of Honeywell, Justice Obaseki-Adejumo of the Court of Appeal had held that Justice Yunusa made the ex-parte order without notice to Honeywell. She said it violated the rules guiding winding-up petitions.
According to her, the rules state that every application in such a petition shall be by motion on notice to the person against whom the order was to be made.
“Justice of the case demands that both side be heard. The ruling of the Federal High Court is hereby set aside. The petition shall be assigned to another judge for necessary action. Parties shall bear their costs,” she held.
Justice Idris had last August 10 made an order of interim injunction restraining the bank from publishing the plaintiffs’ name as debtors and ordered parties to maintain status quo pending hearing of the plaintiffs’ suit.
But Honeywell said while the suit was pending, Ecobank filed other suits before other judges in a bid to recover its debt from Honeywell Group and its chairman Oba Otudeko.
Honeywell’s lawyers, therefore, filed Form 48 and Form 49, urging the court to hold the bank in contempt.
But Justice Idris struck out the contempt proceedings on the basis that no proper service was effected on the alleged contemnors.
Ecobank is praying the Supreme Court to hold that the Court of Appeal was wrong to have failed to consider whether Justice Idris had the vires to sit as judge in his own case.
“The Court of Appeal occasioned a gross miscarriage of justice by failing to decide whether the learned trial judge ought to be allowed to hear and/or determine the committal proceedings even before the issue of improper service,” Ecobank said.
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Coalition of Civil Society for Good Governance, Others Are Purveyors of falsehood Says AAS Legal Team As Jesam Micheal Exposes Their Sponsors (Video)
Business
Afriq Arbitrage System Slams $10 million Lawsuit Against Micheal Okoh, Prince Humble Eteng, Hajj Ibrahim, Engineer Awajioma and Others (Video)
Afriq Arbitrage System Slams $10 million Lawsuit Against Micheal Okoh, Prince Humble Eteng, Hajj Ibrahim, Engineer Awajioma and Others (Video)
The board of directors of Afriq Arbitrage Systems after an emergency meeting condemned in strong terms the attitudes of Prince Humble Eteng, Michael Okoh, Okoi Daniels, Engineer Awajioma and others about their nefarious activities to injure the longstanding reputation the organisation has maintained and in a final resolution, resolved that the above parties be sued for defamation and has slammed a ten million dollar lawsuit with a suit number w/2011/2024 against them at the High court of the Federal capital territory in the Abuja judicial division on Monday, April 15th, 2024 on charges bothering on cyber bullying, attempt to life and property, lies and unlawful incitement and instigation against the CEO of the company , Jesam Micheal, his family and organisation.
In the lawsuit through the legal representation of Jesam Michael and AAS by Barrister Ovat the service required the defendants to appear In court within 14 days, else judgement will be issued against them in absentia.
It would be recalled that few days after series of cyber bullying against the CEO of Afriq Arbitrage System, Jesam Micheal and his Family by MICHEAL OKOH, PRINCE HUMBLE ETENG,OKOI DENOCK in collaboration with one TOCHUKWU NWOYE, DINGCHI YARLING, Godwin, Benjamin Uwanga and Findins, Jesam escaped assassination attempt as gunmen numbering over ten, armed with sophisticated weapons invaded his lounge in Lagos seeking for him.
Information available to us revealed that when the hardened criminals invaded the lounge on Friday, April 5th, 2024 where Jesam was billed to address his workers, they were demanding for him and when they learnt he couldn’t make the meeting as expected, they descended on the staff and customers threatening to kill them in his stead. They also went away with the company’s properties such as laptops, equipment and gadgets of staffers and customers.
Micheal Okoh who has been ranting on Social media against the CEO of Afriq Arbiritage System has been exposed along with Prince Humble Eteng, Okoi Denock as partners in crime with Abayomi oluwasesan who is in prison for defrauding the financial platform to the tune of $87 million dollars
According to reports, Micheal Okoh is an investor in AAS who has benefited from the scheme and has withdrawn over three thousand dollars which he never disclosed to his gullible followers until the evidence was uncovered and exposed to the community.
Aside from that, information revealed that Micheal Okoh, Prince Humble And Okoi Denock have been working in tandem with Abayomi in plotting the loot from AAS and threatening the life of Jesam Michael and his family. In a series of life threatening messages the plotters swear to eliminate him and his family for standing on the path of truth, justice and for arresting Abayomi in recovering the loot. Also, these revelations are not unconnected to the fact that these people engineered Abayomi not to return investors money back to the community.
However, the long arm of the law will soon reach them as Abayomi who has willingly confessed to the heinous crime he committed to the company is arrested and taken to court where he is Remanded and Micheal Okoh and his cohorts we learnt are also on the radar of the security operatives for collaboration and cyber bullying.
Sadly, the threat to life of the CEO and his family by these people should not be taken lightly as just as Mr Micheal Okoh said in his video that he will bring him down, same day, gunmen were sent to invade AAS lounge on the same day he was to address his workers for the year.
According to the security officer of the company, the ugly incident has never happened before on any of their investments until this brazen threats from Mr Okoh and others.
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