Lagos Motor Boat Club member asks Appeal Court to reverse judgment on his exclusion

A member of the Lagos Motor Boat Club, Babajide Coker, Thursday asked the Court of Appeal in Lagos to reverse a lower court judgment that struck out his suit seeking to sack the club’s trustees for his alleged exclusion from the club’s 2020 election.

Mr. Coker filed his appeal in suit FHC/L/CS/578/2021 following his dissatisfaction with the decision of Justice Lewis Allagoa of the Federal High Court, Lagos, delivered on February 21, 2022.
Coker had last year dragged the Registered Trustees of the Lagos Motor Boat Club to court over his alleged wrongful expulsion and commuted suspension from the club.

In the suit filed on June 16, 2021, he averred that his wrongful expulsion which was later converted to six months suspension robbed him of the opportunity to vie for the post of Duty Officer in the club’s 2020 election.

The suit filed on his behalf by Dr. Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, has the Registered Trustees of the Lagos Motor Boat Club, Dr Dapo Majekodunmi, Mr Babajide Balogun, Babashola Alokolaro, Ladi Ani-Mumuney, Prince Francis Awogboro and Corporate Affairs Commission as 1 to 7 respondents respectively.

Among the reliefs sought by plaintiffs were a nullification and/or setting aside the October 5, 2020 election of the club; nullification and/or setting aside his expulsion or suspension from the Club and relisting his name as a validly nominated and qualified candidate for election to serve as a Duty Officer of the Committee of the 1st Defendant.

But Justice Allagoa held, among others, that Coker had no locus standi to have brought the action according to section 839(2) & (3) of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA).

Dissatisfied, Coker, through Dr. Pinheiro, challenged the decision on the ground that the lower court erred in law.

He prayed for four reliefs, including an order allowing the appeal and another reversing Justice Allagoa’s judgment.

Lastly, he asked the court to enter judgment in his favour “as per the reliefs sought on the face of the substantive Originating Summons by invoking its amplitude of powers under Section 15 of the Court of Appeal Act 2004.”

Coker also petitioned the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) for a “comprehensive regulatory investigation into the activities of the Registered Trustees of the club.

He claimed, among others, that “The manner in which the affairs of the Club are being conducted suggests that there is no available forum within the Club by which an aggrieved member can seek unbiased redress and fair hearing.”