Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa of the Federal high court in Lagos has voided the enforcement of an order of the court carried out by Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) Plc against Stallion Nigeria Limited over an alleged N13 billion judgement debt.
Justice Lewis-Allagoa nullified the purported execution on the ground that GTB violated the Consent Judgment entered by the Court on December 17, 2019.
The judge, who gave the verdict while ruling on an application filed by Stallion through its lawyers, Kanu Agabi and Wahab Shittu also held that the execution, which was purportedly done, while the Court was yet to determine the timeline for the completion of the forensic audit under the consent Judgment of the Court, was wrongful and done to undermine the proceedings before the Court.
The Court of Appeal, presided over by Justices Daniel-Kalio Sirajo, had previously delivered judgment in favour of Stallion Nigeria against GTBank on 24 February 2022 and set aside the ruling of Justice Saidu in favour of GTBank.
The Court held that GTBank could not rely on its breach of the judgment to act or levy execution against the assets of Stallion Nigeria.
Also, the Court held that the execution, which was purportedly carried out on February 1, 2023 and subsequent steps by the bank, was not authorised by the Court.
The court proceeded to set aside “any and every step taken by GTBank before, on or after February 1, 2023 in the purported execution of the Consent Judgment of the Court dated 17 December 2019, in the light of the Judgment of the Court of Appeal delivered on 24 February 2022 in favour of Stallion Nigeria.”
GTBank had, on 1st February 2023, relying on the ex-parte order granted by Justice Saidu on 2nd December 2019 and the subsequent consent Judgment, tried to enter one of Stallion’s properties in Victoria Island, Lagos.
Stallion Nigeria, in its application, which the Court granted, had contended that the preliminary KPMG forensic audit report had established that GTB overcharged Stallion over N4,693,625,637.49.
Stallion Nigeria contends that it does not owe GTB any longer and that, on the contrary, it is on record that it has paid more than what was outstanding to GTB by N6,423,700,000.
Meanwhile, GTBank has approached the Court of Appeal, Lagos division, seeking an order of stay against the ruling of Justice Lewis-Allagoa.
Dissatisfied with Justice Lewis-Allagoa’s ruling, the judgment creditors have filed a notice of appeal and urged the court to set aside the lower court’s verdict.
The Appellants stated that “The learned Trial Judge erred in law when he made an Order setting aside the execution of the Consent Judgment of the 17th of December, 2019 carried out on the 1st of February, 2023, where there was no appeal against the Consent Judgment, no Motion for Stay of Execution of the Consent Judgment, no Order staying the execution of the Consent Judgment.
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