Akin Kuponiyi
The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos today Wednesday 31st August 2022, discharged an injunction temporarily restraining Mr Jama Onwubuariri from continuing as the Managing Director of Trucks Transit Parks Ltd (TTP).
The presiding Judge Akintayo Aluko had on August 11, 2022, issued an interim order restraining TTP co-founder and Managing Director, Onwubuariri, from acting as the Managing Director of the company pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.
The order was a sequel to an application filed and argued before the court by Barrister Chinedu Anaje, in the suit filed against Onwubuariri by the company.
However, Mrs Funke Agbor, SAN, applied, on behalf of Onwubuariri challenging the interim injunction, seeking a stay of execution and discharge of the said order.
Mrs Agbor SAN argued, among other grounds, 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 an injunction, facts such as the existence of an order for maintenance of status quo earlier granted by Justice Daniel Osiagor also of the same 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, the plaintiff’s counsel opposed the application to discharge the order arguing that it made a disclosure of all the relevant facts and prayed the court not to discharge the order.
After listening to the arguments from both parties, the court adjourned till Wednesday, August 31 for ruling on Onwubuariri’s application to discharge the interim order.
Justice Aluko in his ruling today 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 20th July 2022 issued by Justice Osiagor and other matters before the judge.
Justice Aluko noted that the plaintiff obtained the order against Onwubuariri on August 11 2022, by concealing important material facts such as a subsisting order of another judge in a similar suit with the same subject matter.
Justice Aluko declared that”The subject matter, in this case, bears great similarity and affinity with the one pending before Justice Daniel Osiagor
“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 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.