Alleged unpaid N5.5bn loan: Court directs Ecobank and Oba Otudeko to stay put

Justice Jude Dagat of a Lagos Federal High Court, on Monday, stopped a winding up petition filed by Ecobank Plc, against Oba Otudeko’s three companies, over alleged unpaid N5.5 billion loan.
In his ruling, the judge said it would be premature to entertain winding up application against the respondents, saying that when a judge is aware that the case before him is also before another judge, such judge should act with care.
The companies are Honeywell Flour Mill; Anchorage Leisures Limited and Siloam Global Services Limited.
He said Justice Idris had in suit number FHC/CS/L/1219/2015, ordered parties to maintain status quo, pending the hearing and determination of the suit before him.
He said the order of Justice Idris is still subsisting.
He therefore ruled that the application to wind up Honeywell Plc and its two sister companies constitute abuse of court process, and consequently upheld the preliminary objection filed by Otudeko’s team to strike out Ecobank Plc’s suit.
Before the winding up application was struck out, the judge had earlier thrown out the committal application filed before the court by the Honeywell Group against Ecobank Plc, for disobeying a Justice Idris’s ruling which ordered parties in the suit to maintain status quo, saying that the application had earlier been struck out by Justice Idris.