54bn debt court dismisses Babalakin's300bn suit against Amcon

Dr. Olawale Bolanle Babalakin (SAN) and
his five companies yesterday lost a N300
billion suit he filed against the Assets
Management Corporation of Nigeria
(AMCON) for freezing the companies’
bank accounts. The suit was instituted
before the Federal High Court, Lagos
and was dismissed for lack of merit with
punitive cost of N10,000.
Babalakin’s companies that were joined
as claimants in the suit are Bi-Courtney
Limited, Chartered Investment Limited,
Resort International Limited and Roygate
Properties Limited.
Dismissing Babalakin’s suit, the trial
judge, Justice Muhammed Idris,
pronounced that: “It takes me to a very
important issue I wish to address arising
from the proceedings that led to this
judgement. The issue has to do with the
duty of a counsel to properly and fully
represent his client. Once counsel
accepts a brief from his client, he is
under a solemn professional duty to
properly and fully represent the client.
“As a repository of knowledge of law,
counsel must work hard on each
individual case he is handling, in terms of
researching afresh and always keeping in
touch with the facts of the case,
especially at the trial stage. This is
because he is duty bound by any
strategy or procedure he adopts, and he
cannot recline from it together with the
consequences flowing therefrom.
“Although the court may intervene in the
face of an obvious incompetence, it can
only do so if the intervention will not
occasion a miscarriage of justice to the
other side.
“In conclusion, I find no merit in this case
and it is hereby dismissed. N10,000 cost
is awarded in favour of AMCON,
defendant against Babalakin and his
companies.”
The claimants instituted the suit
following an ex-parte order made on
September 22, 2014, by Justice Okon
Abang, in suit number FHC/L/
CS/1361/2014, which stopped him from
withdrawing money from all his bank
accounts in the country.
In the suit, Babalakin and his companies
had sought for an order of the court to
direct AMCON to pay him a total sum of
N300 billion as general damage and
aggravated and exemplary damages.
The claimants had also sought for a
declaration that as at September 22,
2014, AMCON’s offer letter dated May 7,
2014, cannot create and/or could not
have created a new cause of action,
either to him or the defendant as same
arose from settlement process engaged
in by them in order to resolve the
dispute, which was the subject matter of
several court actions.
Babalakin and his companies also sought
for a declaration that AMCON
fraudulently misinterpreted and/or
concealed material facts in order to
procure the September 22, 2014 ex-parte
order.
However, AMCON in its statement of
defence, filed before the court by its
lawyer, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), stated
that as a statutory body saddled with the
responsibility of resolving non-performing
loans in commercial banks in Nigeria, it
acted in good faith and in accordance
with its statutory powers under its Act in
order to recover the over N54 billion debt
profile of Babalakin and his companies
purchased the non-performing loans of
Babalakin and his companies from
various banks, following their inability to
pay the said loans, and instituted
recovery actions against them.
AMCON also stated further that following
protracted litigation, both parties met and
agreed on out-of-court settlement, which
culminated in a debt settlement
agreement and an offer letter dated May
7, 2014, was issued to the claimants, but
they failed to adhere to the terms of the
offer letter . by chibabynaija1