During its sitting in Lagos on Thursday, the Federal High Court adjourned the hearing on the bankruptcy action filed by Ecobank against the Chairman of Honeywell Group, Dr. Oba Otudeko, until June 6.
Justice Akintayo Aluko fixed the date after Ecobank’s counsel, Mr Kunle Ogunba (SAN), informed the court that Ecobank had withdrawn the appeal it earlier filed in the case, following a judgment of the Supreme Court on a sister case which rendered the said appeal from the court academic.
Ogunba said following the apex court’s decision delivered in favour of Ecobank on 27th January 2023, “we filed a notice of discontinuance of our appeal emanating from this suit, at the Supreme Court.” He promised to furnish the court with relevant evidence to show the court how that judgement which Supreme court has delivered affects this case. He urged Justice Aluko to adjourn the matter to a new date for hearing of pending applications, in view of the discontinuance of the appeal.
However, Otudeko’s counsel, Faith Adarighifua opposed his application, arguing that the Supreme Court had not pronounced on the notice of discontinuance with respect to this case. She said the Supreme Court needs to make a pronouncement on the notice of discontinuance and until when that is done the proper thing is to adjourn this suit. She also argued that the court should follow the court of appeal judgement that says our preliminary objection should be had first and alone.
She lamented that there are several cases scattered in different courts which are still in contention and the judgment of the Supreme Court is only in one, which is different from this suit. She prayed the court to adjourn to hearing their objection in line with the judgment of the Court of Appeal.
Justice Aluko ruled that he would adjourn the matter till June 6 to enable him to review the issues and make an informed decision on the procedure to adopt, in line with the decisions of the appellate courts.
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