Alex Enumah
The Supreme Court yesterday fixed October 7, 2021, for hearing in the motion filed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and others seeking leave of the court to appeal the £2.556 billion judgment entered against them by the Federal High Court in 2014.
The Court of Appeal also affirmed the judgment of the lower court.
Not satisfied with the judgment, the appellants, which include CBN, Union Bank of Nigeria, the Minister of Finance, and the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), approached the court for leave to appeal the judgment.
Petro Union Oil and Gas Limited had in 2014 secured a court judgment of £2.556 billion at a Lagos Federal High Court against the respondents/appellants.
The judgment, which Petro Union Oil and Gas Limited obtained was given jointly and severally against all the four of them, and attracts interest at the rate of 15 percent per annum between 1994 and 2014, and thereafter at the rate of 10 percent per annum until it is paid.
Today, the total judgment sum is about $15.5 billion.
When the case came up yesterday, the lingering controversy over how the proceeds was to be shared and who had the right to represent Petro Union came up again with two lawyers, Joe Kyari Gadzama (SAN) and Onyechi Egwuonwu, announcing separate appearances for Petro Union.
Egwuonwu informed the court that he was briefed to institute the case leading to the judgment at the Federal High Court, and that when the matter got to the Court of Appeal, he invited Gadzama to lead the legal team for Petro Union as the “instructing counsel.”
He also told the court that following his application to disqualify Gadzama from further appearing in the matter and to be disbarred, Gadzama hurriedly informed the court of his intention to withdraw his appearance in the case and followed this up by filing an affidavit to the same effect.
Egwuonwu argued that having done so, Gadzama is prevented from changing his mind and continuing to act as counsel to Petro Union.
He further argued that having been instructed on a contingency fee basis, which means that his fee is tied to a portion of the judgment sum and having been instructed through an irrevocable power of attorney, he could not be pushed out of the case.
After the court tried in vain to get the two warring lawyers to amicably resolve their disagreement, the court enquired from three persons representing Petro Union, who their lawyers confirmed in open court that their lead lawyer is now Gadzama, and that they had asked Egwuonwu to work together with him but to no avail.
Following this confirmation, the court informed Egwuonwu that he could no longer be heard in the proceedings.
This paved the way for Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN) leading other senior lawyers for the appellants to introduce his pending application.
Lawyers for CBN, Minister of Finance, and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Damian Dodo (SAN) and Ghazali (SAN) informed the court that they were not opposing the application of the appellants, but Gadzama told the court that he had filed a preliminary objection to the application.
In view of the contentious nature of the application, the court adjourned hearing in the case to October 7, 2021.