Court Strikes Out FHT Mega Express N7.1bn Suit Against Parallex Bank

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court has dismissed the suit filed by a logistics firm, FHT Mega Express Limited, against Parallex Bank Limited.

The firm had filed a suit seeking N7.1 billion against the bank.

In the suit, the court upheld Parallex Bank’s preliminary objection that the case amounted to a gross abuse of court process.

The logistics company had obtained an ex parte order against the bank to freeze its funds up to N7.1 billion with the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The bank challenged the order through a notice of preliminary objection, urging the court to strike out and/or dismiss the suit on the ground that it constituted an abuse of court process, particularly in the light of the subsisting suit which the bank had earlier filed against the company before the High Court of Lagos State to recover this company’s outstanding indebtedness to Parallex Bank.

In its ruling delivered on 20th April, 2026, the court held that FHT’s suit was indeed an abuse of the court process.

The court upheld the bank’s arguments and dismissed the suit in its entirety.

The Court further awarded costs in the sum of ₦500,000.00 against FHT Mega Express.

The dispute began on September 4, 2025, when Parallex Bank filed a suit before the Federal High Court, Lagos, seeking to recover a debt of ₦4.5 billion from FHT Mega Express.

In the suit marked FHC/L/CS/1774/2025, the debt reportedly arose from Letters of Credit issued to finance import transactions worth millions of Euros for FHT.

Justice Lewis Allagoa of the Federal High Court had earlier ordered all parties to maintain the status quo pending the determination of the substantive matter.

However, FHT Mega Express allegedly embarked on multiple suits in different jurisdictions — a move Parallex Bank described as forum shopping.

After withdrawing a similar case filed at the Lagos State High Court, FHT Mega Express instituted the Abuja action two days later, raising nearly identical claims and seeking fresh ex parte reliefs.