The Court of Appeal in Lagos has
affirmed billionaire businessman, Jimoh Ibrahim as the legal owner of
Newswatch.
In a unanimous judgment read by
Justice Tijjani Abubakar, the three-man panel of justices upturned a judgment
of the Federal High Court delivered on October 20, 2014, affirming that
lbrahim’s appeal “is meritorious and it is hereby allowed.”
The justices further said that
the trial judge misdirected himself on the issue of the payment of N510 million
for the shares of the company.
They further ruled that the issue
of payment for the share “becomes res judicata “since the payment was already
litigated upon and Justice Abang has ruled that payment of the said sum was
made by Jimoh Ibrahim to the former owners of the company, in accordance with
clause 6.0 of the share purchase agreement..
In the light of the above, they
declared that the company was validly acquired.
The court further held that all
the conditions of the Share Purchase Agreement, particularly clause 6.0, were
adequately complied with before Jimoh Ibrahim was admitted into the board of
the company and subsequently elected as chairman.
“lt is without any doubt that the
lower court erred when it held that N510 million was not paid for the shares,
“the justices said.
Justice Abubakar declared: “I
think the learned trial Judge apparently missed the point when he only
considered questions submitted via originating summons without considering the
other processes filed wherein which constitute an integral part of the records
before him, particularly the defendant affidavit.”
The Appeal Court also ruled that
the trial judge, Buba J of the Federal High Court, erred when he held that the
“doctrine of estoppel” is not applicable in the present case.
Ibrahim won the ownership case at
a Federal High Court. The matter was re-litigated by the defendants before
another Federal High Court Court presided over Justice Buba J, who ruled in
favour of Ray Ekpu, Dan Agbese, Yakubu Mohammed and others.
Ibrahim then appealed against the
judgement. In a unanimous decision, the appeal court declared that the trial
judge ought to have respected the judgement of his learned brother of
co-ordinate jurisdiction.
Justice Abimbola Obaseki-Adejumo
said: “Ipso facto, l agree with the reasoning expressed in the lead judgement
that where a judgement has been delivered by a court, same cannot be subject to
review by another court of co-ordinate jurisdiction.”
An elated Ibrahim, in his
reaction, yesterday, said the judgement has now settled the issue of Newswatch
ownership.
“It is now beyond contest that
the ownership validly rests in me,” he said.
Ibrahim also commended the Appeal
Court and said “he lost no sleep on the ownership of the company for a day” and
that the judgement has resolved what he called “the noisy convergence of
complexities arising from the sale and acqisition of Newswatch.
Nigerians now know the truth,” he
said, and added that “the magazine will soon return to the news stands.” He
dedicated the judgement to Newswatch staff, vendors, readers and advertisers
“who are the victim of the denial of the N510 million payment.”
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