December 12, (THEWILL) — The Federal High Court in Lagos has set aside the receivership order obtained by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) against General Hydrocarbons Limited, dismissing AMCON’s suit in its entirety on the grounds that it constituted an abuse of court process.
Delivering judgement on Friday, December 12, Justice Aluko J. upheld a preliminary objection filed by the company’s Chairman, Nduka Obaigbena, challenging the jurisdiction of the Court to entertain the suit filed by AMCON’s purported receiver, Mr Seyi Akinwunmi.
The Court found that AMCON acted in breach of subsisting orders issued earlier by Justice A. Lewis-Allagoa in suit No. FHC/L/CS/1903/2025, which had expressly restrained the corporation and its agents from appointing or maintaining a receiver over General Hydrocarbons.
Justice Aluko noted that AMCON’s legal team, led by Bidemi Ademola-Bello SAN, failed to disclose the existence of these orders and ongoing proceedings, thereby misleading the Court into granting interim orders on 24 October 2025. This conduct, the Court held, amounted to a deliberate suppression of material facts.
The judgement also addressed confusion regarding the Plaintiff’s legal representation.
The Court confirmed that Dr Abiodun Layonu SAN had been properly appointed as counsel for General Hydrocarbons through a letter dated September 17, 2025, issued on behalf of the company’s Chairman. The later appointment of Mr Oluseye Opasanya SAN and Mr Kayode Adeloula SAN by AMCON’s purported receiver was declared improper and unlawful, given that the receiver’s appointment itself violated existing court orders.
Justice Aluko therefore held that Mr Opasanya’s appearance for the Plaintiff on November 26, 2025, breached valid and subsisting court directives.
The Court further condemned the institution of a second suit—Suit No. FHC/L/CS/2159/2025, General Hydrocarbons Limited (In Receivership) & Seyi Akinwunmi v. Nduka Obaigbena & Ors—before Justice Aluko, observing that it duplicated issues already pending before Justice Allagoa.
This second action, the court ruled, was an attempt to secure judicial endorsement for a receivership that had already been prohibited, and therefore, constituted a clear abuse of court process.
Reaffirming the binding nature of earlier orders, the Court cited the Supreme Court’s decision in Ngere v. Okuruket (2014), emphasising that orders of a competent court must be obeyed until set aside, even when a party believes them to be incorrect.
Justice Aluko also noted that AMCON’s counsel had undertaken on October 22, 2025, to respect the subsisting orders, only to act in disregard of them subsequently.
In its final orders, the court set aside the interim orders obtained on 24 October 2025 by AMCON’s purported receiver, dismissed the suit filed by Mr Seyi Akinwunmi for want of jurisdiction and abuse of process, and reaffirmed the validity of Justice Allagoa’s prior restraining orders preventing AMCON from interfering with the assets or management of General Hydrocarbons Limited.
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