Court Convicts First Bank, Awosika, Adesola For Contempt
Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court in Lagos on Wednesday convicted First Bank Plc and its Chairman, Ms. Ibukun Awosika over contempt of court bothering on its refusal to honour the payment of N122 billion bond its guaranteed.
Also convicted by the court is the managing director of bank Dr. Adesola Adeduntan.
However, instead of sending them to prison immediately, Justice Buba gave them a three months grace, within which they must purge themselves of the contempt by paying the judgment debt.
According to the judge, if by September 6, 2018, the convicts failed to purge themselves of the contempt proceedings, they shall immediately be sent to prison.
Before convicting, First Bank, its chairman, and managing director on Wednesday, the court had earlier dismissed all the applications filed by their counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN).
The lawyer had argued that the contempt proceedings was an abuse of court process because it was statue bar.
The convicts were dragged before the court by the people of Ejama-Ebubu community in the Tai Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State, in respect of the judgment debt against Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), in an oil spill suit instituted by Ejama community in Ogoniland, Rivers State.
It would be recalled that the plaintiffs had dragged Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Netherlands, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, United Kingdom, and SPDC before the judge, over alleged oil spills that occurred when Shell operated in the community.
Justice Ibrahim Buba, while he was sitting at the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt in 2010, entered Judgment against the oil giant after the oil firm refused to put up a defence.
He awarded the sum of N17 billion in favour of the representatives of the Ogoni people and equally granted a 25 per cent interest charge on the principal sum.
The judge further ordered Shell to de-pollute and rehabilitate the dry land and swamps to its pre-impact state.
The spill affected an area of about 255.369 hectares.
Apparently dissatisfied with the verdict, SPDC filed an appeal and applied for a stay of execution of judgment pending the appeal.
One of the condition given by the court for granting the stay of execution, was that Shell’s bankers, First Bank Plc, must provide a guarantee of the judgment sum.
This condition was complied with by the defendant.
But Shell’s appeal failed at the Court of Appeal on technical grounds, ostensibly because it filed its processes out of time and without regularising them.
Consequent upon the failure of the appeal of SPDC at Appeal Court, and the refusal of First Bank Plc, to honour the payment of judgment debt which the bank had early guarantee through a bond, the applicants, through their lawyers, Chief Lucius Nwosu (SAN), A.A. Lawal -Rabana (SAN) and Ken C. Njemanze (SAN) filed Form 48 and Form 49 (committal to prison) against the bank, its chairman and managing director.
However, ruling could not be delivered in the contempt proceedings until today, due to several applications that were filed by the contemnors, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which sought to join as party in the suit, and SPDC.
Meanwhile, Justice Buba, has adjourned ruling till June 19, in another applications seeking to dismiss the entire application.