AMCON vs Capital Oil: Ubah prays court to vacate freezing order on his firm

Chief Executive Officer of Capital Oil and Gas Ltd, Dr Ifeanyi Ubah, on Wednesday, prayed a Federal High Court in Lagos to vacate an interim order against his firm.
The order was made on April 13 against the company.
The petitioner, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), had filed and obtained an expert order freezing Capital Oil and Gas’ account over alleged debt running into billions of Naira.
Ubah through his counsel, Mr Michael Damiari, also filed a notice of preliminary objection, challenging the jurisdiction of the court to determine the case.
In addition, the respondent also filed a respondent’s counter affidavit in opposition to the petition dated April 5.
On Wednesday, Counsel for the petitioner, Mr Abubakar Mahmud (SAN), and Damiari, engaged in argument on which of the applications should be taken first.
In his ruling, the trial judge, Justice Mohammed Idris, held that the motion challenging jurisdiction would be first heard.
Idris noted that although the motion to vacate the order was imperative, the court is poised to first determine the issue of jurisdiction, before it can commence with further proceedings.
“The court is poised to determine jurisdiction before commencing with further proceedings.
“I know that the order will elapse in 14 days time, but we shall come back at earlier date possible,’’ he said.
Idris fixed May 2 for that purpose, with a proviso that it would come up on May 3 if May 2 happens to be a public holiday.
In his motion to vacate the order, Ubah was praying the court to also stay the compliance by the petitioner (AMCON), pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.
In a supporting affidavit of 98 paragraphs deposed to by Nsikan Usoro, the respondent/applicant avers that he contests the size of the debt claimed by Union Bank against him.
According to him, during the pendency of the suit, AMCON without regard to the pending action bought the debt from Union Bank at a price in excess of the actual debt claimed by the bank.
He said that the same applied to facilities provided to the applicant by FCMB and Aso Savings and Loans Ltd.
The applicant added that it remained the largest and most profitable Nigerian Petroleum industry downstream operator with assets of more than N300 billion, far in excess of its debts to a few banks and trade creditors.