Court Orders Status Quo In Stanbic IBTC VS AMCON’s N5.7billion Suit

The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Thursday, August 22, 2019 refused to set aside a status quo order it made on August 8th, 2019 in suit number FHC/L/CS/1360/2019, filed by Stanbic IBTC Bank against the MD, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).

Justice Chuka Obiozor made the experte order based on the motion filed by the Stanbic IBTC bank in Court on August 5th, 2019 through its lead counsel, Prof. F. Ajogwu SAN, to determine whether the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) can unilaterally re-price the Eligible Bank Asset (EBA) it purchased from Stanbic well over 5 years after.

Ajogwu said that AMCON was looking to reprice the EBA after 5 years and claw back the sum of N5.7 Billion from Stanbic, claiming that the collaterals of Lonestar Drilling Nigeria Ltd were overvalued.

On August 8th, 2019, Justice Obiozor ordered parties to maintain status quo and adjourned the matter to August 22, 2019 for the hearing of the Motion on Notice.

But on the 22nd of August, AMCON through its counsel, Mr. Francis Agbu, SAN approached the court to set aside the order of Status quo made on 8th August, 2019.

Justice Nicholas Oweibo ruled otherwise and said that the order cannot be discharged since a motion to discharge the order have not been served on the Plaintiff.

The judge opined that the administration of justice will be better served if the plaintiff is been served with the motion, so that it can be heard on its merit.

The Court thereafter adjourned the case to 10th of September 2019 for hearing of all applications.