ERASTUS AKINGBOLA

Court dismisses suit to halt sales of Intercontinental bank.

The Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday dismissed a suit filed by the former Managing Director of Intercontinental bank, Erastus Akingbola, challenging the planned sales of the bank.
Akingbola and Bayo Dada, a former executive director of the bank had in a petition challenged the purported Memorandum of Understanding for business combination signed by their bank and Access Bank.
This transaction, the petitioners claimed, was without recourse to them as shareholders of Intercontinental Bank.
They urged the court to set aside all steps and decisions taken by the CBN and those it appointed on the board of Intercontinental bank in Aug. 14, 2009.
The petitioners also sought an order nullifying a directive from the CBN removing Dada as a director on Intercontinental Bank.
Joined in the suit are the Intercontinental Bank’s Managing Director, Mahmoud Lai Alabi and other directors, Mr Abubakar Sule, Gbenga Alade, Olusegun Osilowo and Suleiman Yusuf .
Others included former Intercontinental Bank’s chairman, Raymond Obieri, Access Bank and the Central Bank of Nigeria.
But the defendants, in their preliminary objection, urged the court to dismiss the suit.
The defendants claimed that the petitioners lacked the locus standi to institute the petition, and that the court also lacked jurisdiction to entertain it.
Justice Okechukwu Okeke, in his ruling on Tuesday, dismissed the suit on the grounds that, the petition was an abuse of court process and statute barred.
He held that the CBN had the constitutional powers under its Act to supervise banking operations in Nigeria.
On the sack of Dada as a director of the bank, Okeke said his sack letter was not presented to the court and that the court could not rely on speculations.
The court also held that the action was belated because it was carried out since August 2009 and that there was no notice of intention to sue the defendants.