First Bank Holdings Agrees To Suspend Extra-Ordinary General Meeting Amid Legal Tussle

The Federal High Court, sitting in Lagos, has been assured by First Bank Holdings Plc that it will suspend all actions in respect of the Extra-Ordinary General Meeting earlier slated for April 30, 2024.

The undertaking was made following the application of the plaintiff in the suit seeking to dissolve the Board of Directors of the company and also to set aside all decisions reached at the 10th Annual General Meeting, Mr Olusegun Onagoruwa.

The plaintiff had filed an application dated April 30, 2024, seeking an AN ORDER restraining First Bank Holdings and its Board of Directors, their Agents, Employees, Servants, Officers, Directors, Privies or anyone acting on their behalf or at their behest, from conveying, conducting and/or holding the 1st Respondents’ Extraordinary General Meeting scheduled to hold virtually on the 30th day of April, 2024, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive action.

The Plaintiff also seeks AN ORDER restraining First Bank Holdings Plc and its Board of Directors, their Agents, Employees, Servants, Officers, Directors, Privies or anyone acting on their behalf or at their behest, from conveying, conducting and/or holding any meeting of the 1st Respondents whether physically or virtually, capable of undermining, subverting, compromising, eroding and/or rendering nugatory and/or worthless, the Order of this Honorable Court made on the 15th day of July, 2022 and the substantive action filed by the Applicant, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive action.

He also prays the court for AN ORDER setting aside, nullifying, annulling and/or quashing all the meetings of First Bank Holdings Plc held during the life span of the Order of this Honorable Court made on the 15th day of July, 2022 including the decisions and resolutions reached at such meetings and the steps already taken by the Directors, Officers, Agents, Servants and Employees of the 1st Respondent in a bid to execute, actualize, objectify and implement the said resolutions and decisions reached at such meetings.

When the case came up for hearing today April 24, 2024 before Justice Akintayo Aluko, counsel to the plaintiff, Adesoji Adedoyin, drew the attention of the court to the pending application of the plaintiff to stop the Extra-Ordinary General Meeting, urging the court to extract an undertaking from counsel to the defendants not to proceed with the EGM while the application is pending for hearing.

The court thereafter asked the learned senior counsel to the defendants to respond. In his response, Fred Onuobia, SAN, informed the court that the defendants are aware of the pending application and they are a law-abiding litigants who would not do anything to undermine the integrity and authority of the court while the application is still pending. The Court held that the defendants know the consequences of holding an EGM during the pendency of the order of Court of 15th July, 2022. The Court further enjoined the learned Senior Counsel to the defendants to adequately advise his clients, FBN Holdings and its Board of Directors, on any attempt to hold the EGM during the pendencey of this action.

Earlier in the proceedings, counsel to the Central Bank of Nigeria, Oluyemi Adebo, whose application to join the suit as a defenedant was dismissed by the court, moved the court to grant its application for a stay of further proceedings pending the hearing of the appeal that it filed against the ruling of the court. The application was granted by the court after taking arguments from counsel to all the parties.

It will be recalled that First Bank Holdings Plc had announced its Extra-Ordinary General Meeting for April 30, 2024 but had to cancel it upon being served with the application by the plaintiff to suspend the said meeting on grounds of illegality and that a virtual EGM was not contemplated by law. First Bank Holdings Plc has been embroiled in several court cases regarding the management and control of the company and its allied entities, leading to various court orders.