Sale of Intercontinental Bank: Court dismisses Akingbola’s suit

By INNOCENT ANABA
LAGOS—A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, yesterday, dismissed the suit by former Managing Director of Intercontinental Bank, Dr Erastus Akingbola, challenging the planned sale of the bank by Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to Access Bank Plc.

Akingbola and a former executive director of Intercontinental Bank, Bayo Dada, had challenged the propriety of a Memorandum of Understanding, for business combination signed by Intercontinental Bank and Access Bank without recourse to them as shareholders and former directors of the bank, urging the court to also set aside a letter issued by CBN removing them from the bank’s board. CBN and Access Bank had through their preliminary objections, argued that the suit was statute barred and belated.

Trial judge in the matter, Justice Okechukwu Okeke, in his ruling, said the suit was an abuse of court process as there was a similar suit by other interested parties on the same subject-matter before the court.

Reacting, CBN’s spokesperson, Mr Mohammed Abdullahi, in a statement, said that the ruling was an affirmation of its stance on the entire process of recapitalization of the bank, adding that the judgment also affirms the fact that CBN had always complied with the law in all actions it took in recent time.

“It is the hope of CBN that the shareholders will understand these and allow the process to move forward without further delay. They should realise that all these court cases are doing damage to the process which may negatively affect the desire of CBN to retrieve some value for them,” he  said.

Abdullahi further stressed that it was instructive to note that the Judge clearly said that the petition was an abuse of court process and statute bar and therefore unnecessary.

Intercontinental Bank MD, Alhaji Mahmoud Alabi in his reaction, said with the judgment, the coast was now clear for the bank to recapitalize before the CBN deadline.

Speaking through the bank’s Head of Corporate Affairs, Mr Edy Odumosu, Alabi stressed that this was the best time to reposition the bank to greater height.