- Court Adjourns $16.4m Debt Suit Against Stella Oduah
The Federal High Court in Lagos has adjourned till May 30, 2017 to hear pending applications in an alleged debt recovery suit filed against a former Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, by Sterling Bank Plc.
The bank alleged that Oduah and four companies linked to her owed it $16,412,819.06 and N100,493,225.59.
According to the court papers, the companies involved are Sea Petroleum and Gas Company Limited; Sea Shipping Agency Limited, Rotary Engineering Services Limited, and Tour Afrique Company Limited.
Sterling Bank had on February 22 obtained an interim order freezing the accounts of the companies in 21 commercial banks in Nigeria pending the outcome of the case.
Justice Abdulaziz Anka, who made the freezing order, barred Oduah and the directors of the four companies from making any withdrawal from their bank accounts pending the determination of the suit.
At the Tuesday proceedings in the case, counsel for Sea Petroleum and Gas Company Limited, Mrs. Ijeoma Esom, told the court that she had not been served with the court processes, but said she had filed a preliminary objection to the suit.
Oduah’s lawyer, Mr. A. Nweke, told Justice Ayokunle Faji, who is now hearing the case, that he had also not been served, adding that the defendants had filed an application seeking to discharge the freezing order.
But counsel for Sterling Bank, Mr. Kemi Balogun (SAN), recalled that the court had already granted his client’s application to serve the defendants through substituted means by newspapers publications.
He said his client had complied with the order, exhibiting two national dailies, in which the court order was published.
In response, the defence counsel urged the court to grant them extension of time to file their processes.
Justice Faji adjourned till May 30.
The bank, in an affidavit deposed to by one of its managers, Mr. Segun Akinsanya, averred that the debt stemmed from a loan of $10,069,620.25 granted Sea Petroleum and Gas Company on October 8, 2012, to finance one unit 5,000MT tanker vessel.
Adesanya further averred that the company also obtained other loans of $449,600.00, $642,954.00 and $350,000.
He said the bank resorted to filing the suit following the alleged refusal of the oil company to liquidate the loans, which, he said, stood at $16,412,819.06 and N100,493,225.59 as of November 2016.
