Seplat Petroleum Development Company chairman, ABC Orjiako Drags Diamond Bank , Skye, Two Others to Court Over $143.9 Million England Judgement
July 14, 2018
An aggrieved Nigerian businessman Dr Ambrose Bryant Chukwueloka Orjiako and his Company Shebah Exploration and Production Company Limited have gone to court asking for the judgement of a Court of England and Wales which awarded $143.9 million to a group of three lenders to be set aside.
Mentioned as respondents in the petition filed before a federal high court in Lagos are the Africa Import Export Bank, Diamond Bank Plc and Skye Bank Plc. The petition was filed on behalf of the claimants by a Lagos-based lawyer Chief Anthony Idigbe SAN.
The three lenders had in July 2011 granted a $100million credit facility to Shebah Exploration; the facility was later amended and restated to $150 million in May 2012.
However, sometime in 2014, the lenders had sought summary judgement in the high court of England and Wales against the plaintiff in the grounds that Shebah Exploration defaulted in its quarterly repayment obligations.
The judge of the English Court Mr. Justice Phillips proceeded to give summary judgement in February 2016 to the tune of $143.9 million against the plaintiffs without recourse to the plaintiffs’ own counter-claim which was at that time still pending before a high court in England.
The applicant maintain that the move of the three lenders to register the summary judgement of Mr Justice Phillips with a federal high court is illegal because they were denied right of appeal against that summary judgement.
According to the petition, the right of appeal is an inalienable right of every Nigerian citizen under the constitution, therefore any legal process that denies this fundamental right does not carry weight under Nigerian law.
The applicants are therefore seeking the following reliefs from the court presided over by Justice Muslim Hassan:
An order to set aside the order of the court made on 21st day of February, 2018.granting leave to the respondents to register the summary judgement.
An order nullifying the certificate of judgement dated the 28th day of March 2018 issued by the Chief Registrar of the court.
An order staying the execution of the summary judgement of Mr. Justice Phillips of the court of Justice of the Queen Bench Division pending the determination of the Shebah Exploration and production Company Limited counter -Claim by the high court of England and Wales.
The presiding judge Justice Muslim Hassan has however fixed the October 23, 2018 for hearing on the case.
