GTB Vs Afex: Court adjourns case to June 27

Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Thursday fixed June 27, 2024, for further hearing of the contempt suit initiated by Guaranty Trust Bank Plc against the directors of AFEX Exchange Commodities Limited over a N17.81bn loan.

Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke who presided over the court fixed the date after hearing the argument and submission of the plaintiff lead counsel, Mr Ade Adedeji (SAN), and the respondent/ defendant counsel,  Prof Olawoyin (SAN) over the commodities’ exchange directors alleged disobedience to court order.

The plaintiff, the Guaranty Trust Bank Limited has through his counsel, Ajibola Aribisala (SAN) filed a suit marked no FHC/L/CS/911/2024 against the respondent, AFEX Exchange Commodities Limited and its five directors over a N17bn loan obtained under the Anchor Borrowers programme of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The alleged contemnors include; Ayodele Balogun, Jendayi Fraaser, Justin Topilow, Mobolaji Adeoye and Koonal Ghandi.

The court had at the last sitting ordered the contemnors who were not in court to appear and issue form 49 to be served on them via newspaper publication.

However, at the resume proceeding Thursday, GTB’s lead counsel, Adedeji told the court that of the two contempt proceedings pending before the court, one was ripe for hearing while the other was not.

He said the first one is the contempt against the respondent five directors (Afex Exchange Commodities Limited) which is ripe for hearing while the second one which is the contempt against the directors of banks is not ripe for hearing.

The banks and their directors facing contempt charges were all represented by lawyers in court on Thursday but the alleged contemnors were not in court.

Adedeji, therefore, argued that with their non-appearance,  the directors of AFEX were in disobedience to court order.

He said, “My lord, the parties in contempt are not in court. The contemnors cannot sit in the comfort of their homes and send a lawyer to court in contempt proceedings. The law is trite that they must appear before the court.”

In his response, Olawoyin said he was briefed on the matter on Tuesday and wasn’t aware of what had transpired earlier.

He added, “When I inquired of whereabouts of the contemnor was why I applied to the court.  The people listed as directors in the suit are no longer with the company. There are only three Directors in the company now and one of them is in court, Mr Akinyinka. And the other one went for Umrah (Hajj). With due respect, I will never be a party to disrespect the court. I need to extract facts. I pray the court to give us an opportunity and grant us adjournment.”

Meanwhile, the lawyers representing Citibank prayed the court to discharge her client (but Justice Aneke said she has to come on the next adjourned date for that.

At the last adjourned date, Aribisala had told the court that the contempt proceedings are sui generis (of its kind) and take precedence above any other applications before the court. He submitted that every person to whom an order of the court is directed has an unqualified obligation to obey the order until it is discharged or set aside on appeal.

Aribisala argued that the alleged contemnors were still liable to show cause as to why they should not be punished for contempt.

On May 27, Justice Aneke granted an interim Global Standing Instruction injunctive relief following an application by Aribisala on behalf of GTB. GSI was created as a last resort for banks and financial institutions to recover outstanding loans from chronic debtors.

In the court ruling, more than 20 banks were directed to transfer monies standing to the credit of the respondent into the AFEX’s account with GTB until the N17.81bn is repaid.

The N17.81bn loans comprise N15.77bn; the amount outstanding and unpaid, as of April 17, 2024, and the cost of recovery and incidental expenses in the sum of N2.04bn.

The court also granted an injunction allowing GTB to take over AFEX 16 warehouses located across seven states and sell the commodities stored in them, which it said were procured with the Central Bank of Nigeria Anchor Borrowers’ loan facility.