A federal high court in Lagos has fixed April 15 for the hearing of the suit filed by Ecobank Plc against Obafemi Otudeko over 6.31 billion shares purchased by Barbican Capital Limited, an affiliate of Honeywell Group Limited, in First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Holdings.
Obafemi Otudeko is the son of Oba Otudeko, former chairman of FBN Holdings.
Deinde Dipeolu, presiding judge, fixed the date following a filed motion ex-parte seeking to restrain Obafemi Otudeko, who is also the managing director at Honeywell Group and others from taking any steps to amortise, dematerialise, compromise, sell, transfer or deal with the 6.314 billion shares.
The motion ex-parte marked FHC/L/CS/638/2025, was filed by Kunle Ogunba, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and lawyer to Ecobank.
Other defendants in the suit alongside Otudeko’s son are: Barbican Capital Limited; Honeywell Flour Mills Plc; Siloam Global Services Limited; Oyeleye Foluke, a director at Honeywell Group; FBN Holding Plc; Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC); and Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), now Nigerian Exchange.
The originating summons, filed by Ecobank, sought to determine whether Barbican Capital can validly purchase shares in FBN Holdings, even though Honeywell Group was a “judgement debtor” in a supreme court judgement between “Anchorage Leisures Limited & 2 Ors. -v- Ecobank Nigeria”.
Ecobank also asked the court to determine whether registration of the Barbican Capital by Honeywell Flour, which thereafter purchased 6.314 billion units of shares in the FBN Holdings “is a ploy to circumvent the Final Judgment of the Supreme Court in Appeal”.
Ecobank sought an interlocutory order restraining all the defendants from “taking any steps to amortize, dematerialize, compromise, sell, transfer or otherwise turn to cash or any negotiable instrument of any sort the already dematerialized shares of Honeywell Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, pledged to the Eco Bank Plc, in furtherance of the credit facility availed to the Honeywell Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, to purchase the said shares pending the hearing and final determination of the suit”.
The lawyer added that the motion was supported with an affidavit of 38 paragraphs deposed to by Jafaru Kupa, a financial officer at Ecobank, and attached with a written address and some documentary exhibits.
Following the lawyer’s presentation, Dipeolu instructed the plaintiff to serve the motion for injunction on each defendant, requesting that they provide reasons why it should not be granted.
Consequently, Dipeolu adjourned the matter to April 15 for a hearing of the motion on notice.
