A lawsuit involving a disputed multi-billion naira debt owed to Ecobank Nigeria Ltd. and Anchorage Leisures Ltd. and two others has been postponed until December 11 by Justice Yelim Bogoro of the Federal High Court, Lagos.
The lawsuit, titled FHC/L/CS/352/2023, was put back on the docket on Wednesday following the July 2023 hearing.
For the Plaintiffs/First – Third Defendants, Bode Olanipekun (SAN) oversaw a group that responded to the Counter-Claim.
The team representing the defendant/counter-claimant was led by Mr. Kunle Ogunba (SAN).
On behalf of the Fourth Defendant, Ade Adedeji (SAN) oversaw a group that made the Counter-Claim.
Leading the group on behalf of the Fifth Defendant to the Counter-Claim was Abimbola Akeredolu (SAN).
A team led by Prof. Taiwo Osipitan (SAN) represented the 6th Defendant in the Counter-Claim.
Olanipekun told the court that several petitions were pending after the day’s proceedings got underway and that they had submitted a motion on October 23, 2023, to change their original procedures.
However, as of the most recent adjournment, Ogunba told the court that the application that was still outstanding was his request for summary judgment against the Plaintiffs, which was founded on the claims and admitted facts by the Plaintiffs. He also stated that the case was ready for hearing.
Additionally, he pointed out that the Plaintiffs’ amendment application was not ready for a hearing because it had only been submitted two days prior.
He said that the Plaintiffs had plenty of time to make the aforementioned application, but they chose to wait and finally filed it on October 23 in an apparent attempt to postpone the day’s proceedings.
He did, however, offer that the court should consider both his move for summary judgment and the application for modification if it was inclined to hear the aforementioned application. He would reply on a point of law.
Ogunba further contended that Olanipekun had overreached in his application for judgment, arguing that the revision was essentially an attempt by the Plaintiffs to modify their argument.
The fourth and fifth defendants’ attorneys told the court that they had submitted a Notice of Preliminary Objection to the counterclaim, requesting that the court consider their objections before considering the other party’s.
Following a sequence of discussions and representations from the relevant attorneys regarding the order of precedence for each application, the court decided that it would prefer to hear the amendment application and make a decision on it before moving on to consider the other applications in the case.
Ogunba had urged the court to adjourn the matter for hearing of both the motion for judgment and the motion to amend, adding that the court can, on the said date, hear the two applications but would first resolve that for amendment. Olanipekun had specifically prayed for the court to specifically adjourn the matter for hearing of his motion to amend.
As a result, Justice Bogoro postponed the hearing to December 11, 2023.
