The cost granted by the court against the minority shareholders who sought to be joined in the ongoing suit filed by the bank against the Financial Regulating Council of Nigeria(FRCN) was as a result of the adjournment requested by their counsel, Elder Paul Ananaba (SAN). Stanbic is in court to challenge the FRCN over its alleged investigations concerning liabilities said to have accrued in the plaintiff’s 2014 accounts in respect of franchise fees owed to Standard Bank of South Africa, the registration of which it said has been pending before, National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion, NOTAP since 2011. At the resumed hearing of the case, a shareholder, Alhaji Muktar Muktar, on behalf of himself and the Trusted Shareholders Association of Stanbic Holdings Plc, are seeking to join as a party to a suit filed by Stanbic IBTC Holdings against the FRCN and NOTAP. The application which was supposed to be heard Friday, could not go on as the counsel to the shareholders, Elder Paul Ananaba (SAN), sought for an adjournment stating that he was not ready to move the application as he needed more time to respond to the reply by the bank before moving his application. He added that Stanbic IBTC’s counsel, Prof Fidelis Oditah (SAN, QC), only served him with his reply to the application on Thursday. In his response, Oditah said Ananaba should have informed him that he was not ready to argue his application, he therefore asked for punitive cost of N100,000. In his short ruling, Justice Ibrahim Buba said he would adjourn to enable Ananaba “put in every arsenal he has,” but awarded a cost N50,000 in favour of Oditah.]]>