June 20, (THEWILL)- Just when many thought that the messy fight among high profile members of the prestigious Lagos Motor Boat Club, Ikoyi, which almost tore the members-only exclusive club apart last year, has died a natural death, one of the members, Babajide Coker, has refused to let sleeping dogs lie. He has instituted a legal suit against the club and six of its members, registered trustees of Lagos Motor Boat Club alongside Dapo Majekodunmi, Babjide Balogun, Babashola Alokolaro, Ladi Ani Mumuny, Prince Francis Awogboro and the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC.
In the suit lodged at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, with suit number FHC/L/CS/578/2021, Coker is challenging his disenfranchisement in the club elections that took place in October 2020. He is also contesting his subsequent expulsion from the club, which he considers unlawful but was later commuted to a six months suspension. In the suit filed by his lawyers, Kemi Pinheiro SAN, and already served to the respondents, Coker is seeking, among other things, an order of interlocutory injunction restraining the defendants from conducting elections into offices, in respect of officers and members of the committee of the club, and holding the club’s Annual General Meeting, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.
To refresh your memory on the genesis of the club crisis, which almost led to the exchange of fisticuffs, trouble started when Demola Akinrele, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and a senior member of the club, suggested to Femi Fowora, Folabi Balogun and Ladi Ajose Adeogun, all members of the club, the possibility of preventing Coker from putting himself up for re-election. Akinrele felt that some of Coker’s ideas on certain aspects of the club’s operations were unorthodox. His message was relayed to Coker who initially accepted not to put himself up for re-election, but later changed his mind.
Unfortunately, the proposition to Coker ended up being misconstrued and this fuelled sympathy for him, thus leading to apathy among members of the club, with two groups; one clearly on the side of Coker and on the other, resonating Akinrele’s concerns. This prompted a member, Dapo Oshinusi, to table the matter before a trustee and a former president of the club, Prince Francis Awogboro, with a request for his intervention in order to prevent a breakdown of law and order, while also fingering Akinrele and Ajose-Adeogun as the person behind the tension brewing in the club.
After listening to Akinrele and Ajose-Adeogun, Awogboro agreed with their suggestion and directed that Coker should not run in the 2020 elections. However, to the shock of Awogboro, his fellow trustees, Lanre Towry-Coker and Senator Tokunbo Ogunbanjo, went ahead to put up Coker’s name for re-election. Awogboro felt slighted at their effrontery and proceeded to yank off Coker’s name on the notice board where the names of other members who were seeking elective positions was put up. Then he appended his signature to it as a mark of finality, a tradition of the club by senior members. This did not go down well with Coker’s supporters who requested that the person that struck out his name be disciplined.
Now Awogboro is in his 80s. Asking that an 83-year-old man be sanctioned is, to say the least, the height of disrespect. This set off a chain of reactions that engulfed the club. While some felt that Awogboro, as a trustee, properly intervened under rule 10 of the club because he was invoked by a member to deal with a matter that was affecting the club, others felt Awogboro crossed the line and should be sanctioned. So heated did things become that another Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Eyimofe Atake almost came to blows with Ogunbanjo for openly insulting the octogenarian. From then on, things deteriorated at a dizzying speed.
Coker eventually got expelled for daring to put himself up for re-election, even after he was told to step down. But another member, Akinkugbe, thought it was a disservice that Coker was expelled for carrying out his elected duty as a member of the club without earning as much as a query. He eulogised Coker for diligently carrying out his duties and wondered why he wasn’t considered worthy of re-election when he was never found wanting of anything and was never disciplined for any offence until a group of members, who wished to remain in the shadows (Fowora, Akinrele), decided that he was not worthy of the office.
Akinkugbe reiterated that Coker did not put himself up for re-election but was urged to seek re-election by two long standing members of the club, Towry Coker and Ogunbanjo, both of who were right to do so, in accordance with the club’s tradition. He further stated that even after Towry-Coker and Ogunbanjo wrote to the electoral committee, seeking to know why their nominee was cancelled, they were simply informed that the cancellation had been done by a trustee, an action they felt didn’t make sense. Following an intervention by some members, Coker’s expulsion was commuted to a six months suspension. But Coker won’t have none of it. He feels cheated and unfairly treated and more so, as nothing warranted the punishment meted out on him.
Well, not that he has decided to seek redress in a law court. Perhaps, a court verdict might just be what will finally end all the bad blood.
