Trucks Transit Parks: Court discharges injunction against Onwubuariri
*Federal High Court, Lagos
(Nigeria) A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Wednesday, discharged an injunction which temporarily restrained Mr. Jama Onwubuariri from continuing as the Managing Director, MD, of Trucks Transit Parks Ltd, TTP.
Justice Akintayo Aluko had on August 11,
2022, made the interim order restraining TTP co-founder and MD, Onwubuariri,
pending the hearing and determination of the firm's Motion on Notice in suit
FHC/L/CS/1501/2022.
This was 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, Mrs
Funke Agbor, SAN, 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, Agbor argued,
among others, that the plaintiff misled the court into granting the order by concealing
several material facts.
She contended that the plaintiff did not
disclose to the court in the application for 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 July 20, 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, 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, for ruling on
Onwubuariri's application to discharge the interim order.
Upon resumption on Wednesday, Justice Aluko
upheld Onwubuariri's argument 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 July 22, 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.
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 August 11, 2022, would have
been declined.
"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 August 11, 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 August 11, 2022, is hereby discharged."
The victors asserted that the ruling not
only implies that 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."
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