AGM: Hearing Stalls in Suit Filed by Aggrieved FBN Holdings Shareholders 

Wale Igbintade

Hearing in the suit filed by three aggrieved shareholders of FBN Holdings Plc over the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the company held on August 15, 2023, was stalled yesterday, as Justice Akintayo Aluko of the Federal High Court in Lagos, directed parties to address him on whether he coul proceed with the case, in view of the Notice of Appeal seeking stay of proceedings on the matter.

At the resumed hearing of the suit, Justice Aluko raised the issue suo motu and informed parties of the pendency of the Notice of Appeal filed by FBN Holdings Plc, asking him to stay further proceedings in the matter.

The Judge asked counsel in the matter to file Written Addresses of not more than five pages, on whether the court could continue to hear the case in view of the Appeal pending before the Court of Appeal and another application seeking a stay of proceedings.

 However, counsel to the petitioners, Dr. Muiz Banire, while reacting to the observation submitted that a notice of Appeal cannot act as a stay of proceedings, adding that there was no appeal before the court since the appeal was yet to be entered.

Banire argued that the court could proceed with the hearing of the matter as his application had nothing to do with the issues raised in the appeal.

But Justice Aluko while interjecting him, said it would not be wise for him to close his eyes to the notice of appeal as that would amount to insubordination.

Counsel to the respondents, Mutalubi Adebayo, as well as counsel of parties seeking to be joined, Kazeem Gbadamosi, Adesoji Adedoyin, and Babajide Koku, all pleaded with the court to give them time to address the court on whether it could proceed with hearing of the matter in view of the pending appeal and the application for stay of proceedings in the case.

Consequently, Justice Aluko adjourned the matter to September 23, 2023, for adoption of written addresses.

Some aggrieved shareholders, Olojede Adewole Solomon, Adebayo Oluwafemi Abayomi, and Ogundiran Emmanuel Adejare, had urged the Federal High Court for an order stopping the bank’s Annual General Meeting that held August 15, pending the hearing of their suit number FHC/L/CP/1575/23.

FBN Holdings Plc had in its Notice of  Appeal asked the court to nullify an ex-parte order granted by Justice Nicholas Oweibo of the Federal High Court, which stopped the bank’s Annual General Meeting (AGM).

The holding company, in a Notice of Appeal filed on its behalf by its team of lawyers led by Mutalubi Adebayo, sought the upper court for an order allowing its appeal and an order directing that a different Judge of the Federal High Court Lagos be assigned to hear the substantive matter.