Court Grants Sterling Bank Injunction, Halting Investigation by House of Reps

Justice Daniel Osiagor of the Federal High Court, sitting in Lagos, has restrained the House of Representatives and the Chairman of the House Committee on Public Petitions, Hon. Michael Etaba, from further inviting or investigating Sterling Bank Limited and the Group Chief Executive Officer of Sterling Financial Holdings Company, Yemi Odubiyi. 

This order is pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice for an interlocutory injunction to recover a debt of US$17,079,000.00.

The court granted the order after hearing arguments from Mrs. Funmi Falana (SAN), who represented the applicants.

She moved in terms of the motion and applied for the inclusion of the 5th defendant, the Inspector-General of Police, in the order.

The applicants in the suit, marked FHC/L/L/CS/185/2025, are Sterling Bank Limited, Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc, Yemi Odubiyi, Abubakar Suleiman, Lekan Olakunle, and Dele Faseemo.

The defendants in the case are the House of Representatives, Hon. Michael Etaba, Dr. Innocent Brendan Usoro, Miden Systems Limited, and the Inspector General of Police.

After reviewing the affidavit in support, the attached exhibits, and the written address dated February 3, 2025, which was deposed to by Sunday Adegoke, Justice Osiagor granted the ex parte motion sought by the applicants.

The court order reads: “An Order of Interim Injunction restraining the 1st and 2nd defendants, whether by themselves, agents, servants, privies, or any other person, from further inviting or investigating the plaintiffs, pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice for an interlocutory injunction.”

In a 31-paragraph affidavit in support of the ex parte motion, deposed by Sunday Adegoke, Head of Recovery Litigation for the 1st and 2nd Plaintiffs, it was stated that a banker-customer relationship existed between the 1st Plaintiff and the 3rd and 4th defendants (Dr. Innocent Brendan Usoro, Miden Systems Limited) since 2009.

The 3rd Defendant availed a Vessel Lease Facility of US$17,079,000.00 (Seventeen Million, Seventy-Nine Thousand United States Dollars) with a 48-month term, including a 6-month moratorium on principal and interest repayments.

The 3rd and 4th defendants’ failure to meet their debt obligations led to the facility being restructured for an additional five years, from 2017 to 2022.

The deponent stated that, unbeknownst to the plaintiffs, the funds availed to the 3rd and 4th defendants were diverted and spent on their personal wants, instead of for the intended purpose.

During an inspection of the NBTC Yard in Warri and the Forcados Terminal in Delta State on October 23 and 24, 2023, it was discovered that most of the company’s vessels, financed by the 1st plaintiff and used as security for the facility, were in disrepair due to intentional and fraudulent cannibalization by the 3rd defendant.

The 1st plaintiff also found that additional funds disbursed to the 3rd defendant to revitalize the 4th defendant’s operations had been fraudulently diverted for personal use by the 3rd defendant.

Due to the 3rd and 4th defendants’ failure to repay their loan, a recovery action was initiated against them at the Federal High Court of Lagos in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/946/2021.

A Mareva injunction was obtained against the 3rd and 4th defendants.

This suit culminated in a Consent Judgment, where the defendants admitted liability to the 1st Plaintiff for USD31,335,636.88 (Thirty-One Million, Three Hundred and Thirty-Five Thousand, Six Hundred and Thirty-Six Dollars, Eighty-Eight Cent).

Despite their admission of liability, the 3rd and 4th defendants, with no intention of honouring their obligations under the Facility Agreement and Terms of Settlement, initiated “vexatious/abusive proceedings” in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/54/2024, seeking to vary the Terms of Settlement adopted as the Judgment in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/946/2021.

Additionally, despite the matter being sub judice, the 3rd and 4th Defendants submitted several petitions to the National Assembly’s House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions, making various allegations against the Plaintiffs, including unlawful deductions and money laundering.

As a result, the plaintiffs were invited to appear before the Committee on Public Petitions on February 5, 2025.

The deponent further stated that, despite the Plaintiffs’ position that the matter is sub judice, the 1st and 2nd defendants insisted that the allegations they were investigating were criminal in nature.

They referred the matter to the Force Criminal Investigation Department (5th defendant) for investigation and for a report to be submitted to the House Committee.

Following this directive, the 5th defendant’s operatives have reportedly harassed the plaintiffs and its officials, disrupting the 1st Plaintiff’s operations.

On December 9, 2024, before a scheduled hearing on December 11, 2024, Mr. Dele Faseemo, an executive of the 1st Plaintiff, was abducted by the 5th defendant’s operatives.

The deponent argued that the 1st and 2nd defendants lack the authority to summon or invite private individuals or corporate representatives to appear before them or their committees for investigations.

Furthermore, he stated that the ongoing investigation of a matter that is sub judice should have been referred to the court, rather than being aired on Arise Television on January 26 and 27, 2025.

The matter has been adjourned till February 21, 2025 for hearing of Motion on Notice.