By Nurat Uthman
The Federal High Court in Lagos has postponed the hearing of pending applications in a lawsuit filed by some shareholders of First Bank against First Bank of Nigeria Holdings, preventing the holding of its Annual General Meeting.
The adjournment was set by Justice Akintayo Aluko after receiving submissions from the involved parties.
One of the disgruntled shareholders, Mr. Sunday Aborisade, requested the court to overturn the interim order granted on July 29th, which instructed FBN Holdings not to proceed with its Annual General Meeting scheduled for August 15.
Aborisade’s lawyer, Kazeem Gbadamosi, filed and presented the application to overturn Justice Nicholas Oweibo’s order.
During the hearing on Wednesday, Aborisade asked Justice Aluko to join him as a party and argued that the AGM should not be stopped as it is similar to a market that cannot be halted.
FBN Holdings’ lawyer, Mutalubi Adebayo, filed a separate application seeking a stay of proceedings, which was denied by Justice Aluko.
The court noted that FBN did not dispute the court’s jurisdiction in its Notice of Appeal and emphasized that filing a Notice of Appeal does not automatically lead to a stay of proceedings.
The shareholders’ counsel, Muiz Banire, informed the court that the application was not ready for hearing and highlighted the blatant disregard for the court’s interim order.
Justice Aluko recognized the pending applications and adjourned the case until after the Annual General Conference of the NBA to allow all parties to submit necessary responses.
