The Federal High Court in Lagos, on Thursday, scheduled a hearing for June 27, 2024, in the contempt suit filed by Guaranty Trust Bank Plc against the directors of AFEX Exchange Commodities Limited over a N17.81 billion loan.
Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke, who presided over the court, set the date after hearing the arguments and submissions of the plaintiff lead counsel, Mr Ade Adedeji (SAN), and the respondent/defendant counsel, Prof Olawoyin (SAN), about the commodities exchange directors’ alleged disobedience to the court order, according to The Punch.
The plaintiff, Guaranty Trust Bank Limited, through its counsel, Ajibola Aribisala (SAN) has filed a suit against the respondent, AFEX Exchange Commodities Limited, and its five directors over a N17 billion loan obtained under the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers programme.
The alleged contemnors include; Ayodele Balogun, Jendayi Fraaser, Justin Topilow, Mobolaji Adeoye, and Koonal Ghandi.
At the previous hearing, the court ordered those who were not there to appear and issued Form 49, which should be served on them via newspaper publication.
However, during the restart proceeding Thursday, GTB’s lead lawyer, Adedeji, informed the court that one of the two contempt matters standing before the court was ready for hearing, while the other was not.
He stated that the first one, contempt against the respondent’s five directors (Afex Exchange Commodities Limited), is ripe for hearing, whilst the second, contempt against bank directors, is not.
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 stated that by failing to appear, the directors of AFEX were violating a 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 was unaware of what had happened 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.”
At the last hearing, the court had 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.
