The Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday rejected the motion on notice seeking to stop Access Bank Plc from taking over a property owned by the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Chief Don Etiebet, known as Etiebet’s Place in Ikeja, Lagos. The property, located on Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, is in the name of his firm, Obodex Nigeria Ltd.
In a ruling, Justice A. Liman refused Obodex Nigeria Ltd.’s plea to stay the execution of a December 17, 2018 judgment of Justice Ibrahim Buba, which empowered Access Bank to take over the property.
The bank had dragged Obodex Nigeria Ltd to court over an alleged indebtedness.
Obodex Nigeria Ltd challenged the court’s jurisdiction to hear the suit. But in his December 17, 2018 decision, Justice Buba dismissed the objection by Obodex Nigeria Ltd and ruled in favor of Access Bank.
Pursuant to this, Access Bank took over Etiebet’s Place and appointed a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Kunle Ogunba, to manage the property towards the recovery of the alleged debt. Not pleased, Obodex Nigeria Ltd filed an appeal as well as an application for stay of execution of the judgment.
In the application for stay of execution, filed through its lawyer, Dele Adesina (SAN), Obodex Nigeria Limited sought an order restraining Kunle Ogunba (SAN) and his privies or assignees from “advertising or offering for sale, selling, mortgaging, transferring, alienating or otherwise interfering with the applicant’s equitable right of redemption on the property situated and lying at 21 Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, Ikeja, Lagos, also known as Etiebet’s House, pending the hearing and final determination of the applicant’s appeals.”
But Access Bank, through Ogunba, opposed Obodex’s application for stay of execution. In a ruling yesterday, Justice Liman refused to stop Access Bank from taking over the property.
