The Federal High Court Sitting in Lagos has adjourned till September 5th to rule on pending applications filed by the different parties in the suit filed by some aggrieved shareholders of First Bank against FBN Holdings.
Justice Akintayo Aluko fixed the date after hearing submissions from parties in the matter.
In one of the pending applications, an aggrieved shareholder of FBN Holdings, Mr Sunday Aborisade, asked the court to set aside the court’s interim order granted on July 29th directing FBN Holdings not to go ahead with its Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on the 15th of August.
The application to set aside the order granted by Justice Nicholas Oweibo is contained in an application filed and moved by his lawyer, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Kazeem Gbadamosi.
Mr Aborishade is also seeking to be joined as a party in the suit.
When the matter came up for hearing on Wednesday, the applicant told Justice Aluko that the interim order was fraudulently obtained by suppression of facts which, if brought to the notice of the court, would have persuaded the court not to grant it.
“My Lord, the order ought not to have been made if the facts are laid bare before the court. I urge my Lord to set it aside. Apart from setting aside the order, I also urge the court to join me as a party, as the order affected me.
“Assuming the meeting was not held virtually, I would not have received my dividends. The AGM is like a market which can not be stopped from holding”, he said.
In an earlier ruling on another application, Justice Aluko refused a move by FBN Holdings to stay proceedings in the matter.
Justice Aluko, in the ruling, said the application by FBN did not challenge the jurisdiction of the court in its Notice of Appeal.
The court also held that filing a Notice of Appeal is not an automatic ground for a stay of proceedings.
Meanwhile, FBN Holdings Plc through its counsel, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mutalubi Ojo Adebayo, has filed another application before the court seeking a stay of the proceedings before the court.
Counsel to the aggrieved shareholders, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Muiz Banire, told the court that the application was not ripe for hearing. He also sought to draw the court’s attention to what he called the flagrant disobedience to the court’s interim order.
Justice Aluko noted that there were pending applications before the court which were not ripe for hearing. He adjourned till after the Annual General Conference of the NBA to enable all parties to file necessary responses to the pending applications.