Bi-Courtney - Court Nullifies AMCON Takeover Bid

There was a mild drama at the premises of the Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday when two Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), Olisa Agbakoba and Wale Babalakin, traded words after the hearing of a debt recovery suit between Bi-Courtney Ltd and the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).

The two senior lawyers, who were coming out from the court where Justice Ibrahim Buba had vacated an order empowering AMCON to take over the operations of Bi-Courtney and three other companies owned by Babalakin, almost exchanged blows but for the prompt intervention of other lawyers, including Wale Akoni (SAN) and Abiodun Layonu (SAN) .

Apart from vacating the order, Justice Buba had also set aside the appointment former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Agbakoba (SAN) as the receiver manager for the company.

According to the judge the application and the subsequent order of Justice Okon Abang was an abuse of court process because it was obtained by Agbakoba through concealment of fact.

Justice Buba noted that the order was granted despite the pendency of the suit before him and an earlier order he gave in the matter.

The court also held that it was clear from the processes before the court that Justice Abang was misled by AMCON to grant the interim orders having failed to notify the court of the existing orders.

It will be recalled that Justice Okon on September 22, 2014 had appointed Agbakoba as the receiver/manager over all the companies of Babalakin including Bi-Courtney Limited, Chartered Investment Limited, Resort International Limited and Roygate Properties Limited.

The orders were based on a N50 billion debt, which Babalakin allegedly admitted owing AMCON.

However, after the court's annual vacation, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Ibrahim Auta had re-assigned the case to Justice Buba, who was handling all previous cases between the parties.

When the case came up on yesterday, lawyer to Babalakin and his companies - Akoni and Layonu (SAN) prayed the court to suspend the interim orders made by Justice Abang empowering Agbakoba to act as the receiver/manager for the companies.

Akoni had submitted that the integrity of the court had been badly affected with the conflicting order, and that there was a serious need for the court to act fast to check the development.

Layonu, on his part, said the Federal High Court, as an institution, had been scandalised with the orders of Abang, because Justice Buba had made specific order restraining AMCON from appointing a receiver/manager and or taking over the companies.

Responding, Agbakoba said as far as he was concerned, there was no confusion with Abang's orders.He said the suit before Abang was filed pursuant to the new cause of action that arose out of the admission by Babalakin that he was indebted to AMCON to the tune of N50 billion.

He recalled that before now, the bundle of cases were basically on determining the actual debt owed by Babalakin and debt swap arising from the argument by the defendants that Federal Government was indebted to Babalakin to the tune of over N132 billion pursuant to a judgment.

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