The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Wednesday 31st August 2022, discharged an interim injunction that had temporarily restrained Mr. Jama Onwubuariri from parading himself as the Managing Director of Trucks Transit Parks Ltd (TTP).
Justice Akintayo Aluko had on August 11, 2022, made the interim order restraining TTP’s co-founder and Managing Director, Mr. Onwubuariri, pending the hearing and determination of the firm’s Motion on Notice in suit FHC/L/CS/1501/2022.
This was a sequel to an ex parte application by Chinedu Anaje, holding the brief of Ghoyega Oyewole, SAN in the suit filed against Onwubuariri.
But Onwubuariri, through his counsel, filed an application, challenging the interim injunction, seeking a stay of execution and discharge of said order.
When the matter came up on August 23, 2022, for arguments on the application to discharge the interim order, Onwubuariri’s counsel argued, among others, that the plaintiff misled the court into granting the order by concealing several material facts.
Specifically, it was argued that the plaintiff did not disclose to the court in the application for an injunction, facts such as the existence of an order of status quo earlier granted by Justice Daniel Osiagor also of the Federal High Court on 20th July 2022.
The status quo order was in respect of the same facts and the violation of the status quo order by the deponent of the affidavit supporting the plaintiff’s ex parte application for the interim order, Mr. Temidayo Adeboye.
Responding to the arguments of Mr. Onwubuariri’s lawyers, the plaintiff’s counsel opposed the application for discharge, arguing that it made a disclosure of all the relevant facts and prayed the court not to discharge the order.
After listening to arguments from both sides, the court adjourned till Wednesday, August 31, 2022, for ruling on Onwubuariri’s application to discharge the interim order.
Upon resumption on Wednesday, Justice Aluko upheld Onwubuariri’s argument through his counsel Mrs. Funke Agbor SAN, that the ex parte injunction against him would not have been granted in the first place if the plaintiff fully disclosed the existence of the order of 20th July 2022 by Justice Osiagor and other matters before the judge.
In his ruling, the judge noted that the plaintiff obtained the order against Onwubuariri on August 11, 2022, by concealing important facts such as a subsisting order of another judge in a similar suit with the same subject matter.
Upholding Onwubuariri’s argument, Justice Aluko held: “The subject matter, in this case, bears great similarity and affinity with the one pending before Osiagor J.
“I agree with the plaintiff’s counsel that the plaintiff made somewhat disclosure in paragraph 26 of the affidavit in support of the ex parte application regarding pending cases between the parties.
“I also agree with counsel to the defendant that such disclosure is not a full disclosure the law expects from an applicant like the plaintiff to get an interim order of injunction by way of ex parte application.
“The seeming disclosure in paragraph 86 of the affidavit in support of the ex parte application is so scanty or inadequate and cannot be described as anything close to disclosure…
“I, therefore, agree with the applicant’s counsel that if all these material facts – which I consider fundamental – were disclosed by the plaintiff before applying for this ex parte order, the order of this court made on the 11th of August 2022, would have been declined.
“The law is that an applicant seeking an interim order ex parte is under strict obligation to make full and frank disclosure of all relevant facts in relation to the application, whether it supports his case or not.
“From the foregoing, it is my considered view that had the plaintiff made a disclosure of all the material facts, this court would not have granted the order of 11th of August 2022.
“The appropriate order to make in the circumstances is one discharging the said order.
“The application hereby succeeds. Consequently, the ex parte order of this court made on the 11th of August 2022 is hereby discharged.”
This ruling not only implies that Mr. Jama Onwubuariri remains the Managing Director of TTP but reinforces TTP’s earlier information to the public that the injunction did not declare or appoint one Mr. Temidayo Adeboye or anyone else as the Acting Managing Director of TTP.
The firm continues to advise all stakeholders and the general public to disregard anyone parading himself or herself as the Acting Managing Director of TTP, adding that “anyone who transacts with such person does so at his or her own risk.”
Comments