Ibru brothers in Legal Tussle over Federal Palace Hotel

 

The tension currently brewing in the Ibru family eventually blew open Tuesday when Mrs Maiden Ibru, the widow of the late publisher of The Guardian Newspaper, Chief Alex Ibru, approached a Federal High Court in Lagos with an application seeking to wind up Federal Palace Hotel over a N2 billion debt.


Federal Palace Hotel, owned by Tourist Company of Nigeria, was co-founded by Alex Ibru with two of his brothers, Goodie and Michael.
In the petition filed by Tunji Braithwaite, Omamo Investment Corporation wants Tourist Company of Nigeria to be wound up pursuant to the provisions of the Companies and Allied Matter Act, 2004.
It also wants the court to appoint a provisional liquidator in the person of the President of the Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) to supervise the winding up of the company.

The company averred that between 2003 and 2009, it lent Tourist Company of Nigeria various sums of money - $7.1 million, N610 million, N381 million and N19 million respectively - which it had refused to off-set.
It added that it had several times approached the respondent either personally or through its lawyer, Messrs Tunji Braithwaite & Co., for it to repay the loans but it had failed to respond positively.
Omamo contended that from the evidence at its disposal, the respondent was insolvent and does not have sufficient assets to meet its liabilities or the capacity to meet the conditions for which it was incorporated.

It added that the respondent's cash flow and balance sheet have shown that it had not been effectively carrying out its hospitality business.
However, the respondent, Tourist Company of Nigeria, in its preliminary objection, urged the court to strike out the petition on the ground that it was incompetent.

The company contended that not only did the suit not disclose any reasonable cause of action against it, it was also an abuse of court process.
The respondent also disclosed that in the ordinary course of business, it took loans and advances from trade creditors and business associates.

While it admitted that it was a beneficiary of such loans and advances especially from the petitioner, the facilities are long term and resolving which were yet to become due or payable.
It denied its inability to or incapability of meeting its financial obligations as they fall due.
When the case came up for hearing Tuesday, a mild drama occurred as the presiding Judge, Justice Okechukwu Okeke, was forced to hand off the case and transfer the case file to the Chief Judge of the court, Justice Ibrahim Auta.

The drama started when Justice Okeke informed parties in the suit that he had received a letter from elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clarke, urging the court to adjourn the matter indefinitely to enable him facilitate an amicable settlement of the dispute out of court.
This development did not go down well with the counsel to Omamo, Braithwaite and Maiden, who was present in court.
Braithwaite prayed the court to ignore the letter, saying that Clarke was a busybody since he was not a party in the case.

On his part, counsel to the respondent, Mr. Onyebuchi Aniakor, noted that though he agreed that the writer of the letter is a busybody, he was convinced that it was done with good intention.
He advised the judge to use his discretion to decide the next line of action.
At this stage, Justice Okeke invited a Senior Advocate of
Nigeria (SAN), Chief Kola Awodein, who was in court for another matter, to contribute to the argument as a friend of the court.

In his intervention, Awodein submitted that though the court has jurisdiction over the case, the court must however exercise that discretion in the best interest of the parties and in line with the law.
However, in his short ruling, the judge held that though the writer of the letter was not a party before the court, he would grant a week adjournment to allow for amicable settlement of the case.
After the ruling, Braithwaite told the judge that they had already written to the Chief Judge of the court to withdraw the case file from him as they no longer had confidence with the way he was handling the case.

This development angered the judge who said that he would hand off the case right there, adding that he had no interest in it.
He added that as an African and a Nigerian, he felt that such family matter should be settled at home and not in the open court.
While this was going on, Mrs. Ibru stood up to say that the case was filed two weeks before her husband died and that before he died, he vowed to pursue the matter to a logical conclusion whether dead or alive.

-Thisday

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Linkedin
• Pinterest

Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday


Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users

You Might Also Like

« PREV

NEXT »