The Supreme Court Thursday reserved ruling on a motion by Union Bank Plc seeking, among others, leave to appeal against a 5 June 2018 judgment of the Court of Appeal in which the bank and three others were ordered to pay an oil and gas firm, Petro Union Oil and Gas Company Limited about £2.556 billion.
In his argument before the apex court, counsel to Union Bank, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN) said its brief contains nine reliefs, among which was an order for leave for extension of time to file an appeal and another order for leave to appeal under Order 6 Rule 2(1) of the Supreme Court’s Rules.
Awomolo said his clients seek to raise fresh grounds of appeal and introduce new evidence necessary for a fair and just determination of the matter by the court
A five-member panel of the apex court, led by Justice Musa Dattijo, after listening to arguments by counsel in the matter, said they would be informed when the ruling was ready.
Awomolo further said it was strange that, while the judgments of the Federal High Court, Abuja (delivered on 11 March 2014) and the subsequent one by the Court of Appeal (which affirmed the Federal High Court judgment) were based on a £2.556 billion cheque allegedly lodged in Union Bank by Petro Union Oil and Gas Company Limited, the said cheque was never tendered in court.
Awomolo said his client intends to show that Petro Union Oil and Gas Company Limited obtained both judgments by fraud, noting that the company’s lawyer, Joe Gadzama (SAN), was only opposed to the grant of reliefs four and six out of the nine reliefs.
He urged the court to disregard the objection raised by Petro Union Oil and Gas Company Limited against his motion and prayed the court to grant his motion on merit.
Olabisi Soyebo (SAN) for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Tijani Gazali (SAN) for the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Finance did not object to Union Bank’s motion.
Soyebo and Gazali, who said they did not file any process in reaction to the motion, urged the court to grant it given the colossal amount involved and its possible implication on the nation’s economy. But Gadzama, in his response, said he vehemently opposed the motion factually and in law. He predicated his objection on the ground that the same Supreme Court in its judgment per Mary Odili, JSC had earlier dismissed a similar application by Union Bank and held that the appeal was incompetent. He posited that the Court was functus officio and urged the Court to allow the preliminary objection.
On the substantive application, he argued that the additional evidence sought to be adduced by Union Bank was not credible and will also require the calling of numerous witnesses at the Supreme Court, amongst others. Gadzama added that the said additional evidence sought to be adduced is one that was ordinarily supposed to be available at the time of trial and would have been tendered with due diligence. He concluded by submitting that Union Bank had not demonstrated the conditions to be allowed to adduce fresh evidence on appeal.
Gadzama urged the court to uphold the objection he raised and dismissed the motion on the ground that Union Bank has not given valid and cogent reasons why leave should be granted it.
Earlier, the court finally resolved the dispute over who should represent Petro Union Oil and Gas Company Limited between Gazama and Onyechi Egwuonwu.
The court said, by its earlier ruling on 5 July 2021, it had found that Gadzama was the actual lawyer for Petro Union Oil and Gas Company Limited as indicated by the Company’s Directors who were present in court and then barred Egwuonwu from further participating in the proceedings.
Petro Union Oil and Gas Company Limited had in 1994 allegedly procured a cheque from a branch of Barclays Bank in the United Kingdom with a value of £2.556 billion which is lodged in a Union Bank branch in Lagos under the pretext that the funds were to be used to construct three petrochemical refinery complexes and a bank in Nigeria.
On 22 March 2012, Petro Union Oil and Gas Company Limited sued at the Federal High Court, Abuja, and sought among others, an order of mandamus compelling the CBN, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Minister of Finance, and the Attorney-General of the Federation to pay it £2,556,000,000.00.
In the suit, marked FHC/ABJ/M/104/2012 Petro Union Oil and Gas Company Limited claimed that the money was deposited with Union Bank in 1994, adding that Union Bank received £2,556,000,000.00 on its behalf and transferred £2,159,221,318.54 to the CBN while it retained £396,778,681.46 as commission.
The defendants, Union Bank, CBN, Minister of Finance, and AGF, in their separate counter-affidavits, denied the company’s claims.
But, in the 11 March 2014 judgment, Justice Adamu Abdu-Kafarati of the Federal High Court, Abuja (now late) held, among others, that Union Bank was liable to Petro Union Oil and Gas Company Limited for £396,778,681.46 being the balance of Petro Union’s foreign capital which it supposedly deposited with the Bank in 1994 and that the CBN was liable to the oil firm for the sum of £2,159,221,318.54.
Out of the four defendants, only Union Bank and the CBN appealed the judgment of the Federal High Court.
On 5th June 2018, the Court of Appeal, Abuja gave judgment in the appeal by Union Bank and upheld the judgment by Justice Kafarati. It is yet to determine the sister appeal by the CBN.
Editor’s Note:
For details of the story, kindly check the August edition of Rulers’ World magazine, or follow the link below.
FRAUD: How Union Bank, CBN convert customer’s £2.556 billion
FRAUD: How Union Bank, CBN convert customer’s £2.556 billion
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