January 19, (THEWILL) — Parallex Bank Limited has urged the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, to dismiss a N7.15 billion suit filed against it by logistics firm, FHT Mega Express Limited, accusing the company of forum shopping and abuse of court process.
The bank, in a Notice of Preliminary Objection and a Motion on Notice, is also seeking the discharge of interim ex-parte orders earlier granted in the matter, arguing that the suit is incompetent and constitutes a deliberate attempt to frustrate lawful debt recovery efforts.
Court documents reveal that the dispute predates the Abuja action. On September 4, 2025, Parallex Bank had instituted an earlier suit at the Federal High Court, Lagos Judicial Division, seeking to recover an alleged outstanding indebtedness of N4.5 billion arising from several Letters of Credit opened in favour of FHT Mega Express to finance import transactions worth millions of euros.
On October 14, 2025, Justice Lewis Allagoa of the Federal High Court, Lagos, ordered parties to maintain the status quo pending the determination of the substantive suit.
Parallex Bank alleged that rather than submit to the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, FHT Mega Express initiated parallel actions in other courts in a bid to secure favourable interim reliefs. According to the bank, the logistics firm first approached the Lagos State High Court seeking ex-parte orders to freeze the bank’s funds, but the application was refused and the bank was ordered to be put on notice.
Court records indicate that following the refusal and upon the filing of a preliminary objection by Parallex Bank, FHT Mega Express discontinued the Lagos suit.
The bank further alleged that barely two days later, the logistics firm filed the present suit at the FCT High Court, Abuja, raising substantially similar issues and accompanied by another ex-parte application. Parallex Bank contended that the claimant failed to disclose to the Abuja court the existence of the earlier Federal High Court suit, the subsisting status quo order, and the failed attempt to obtain ex-parte reliefs in Lagos.
According to the bank, this suppression of material facts misled the court into granting interim orders that ought not to have been made.
In its objection, Parallex Bank argued that the suit amounts to an impermissible attempt to re-litigate issues already pending before a court of competent jurisdiction, constitutes forum shopping, and is calculated to vex, harass, and scandalise the bank through multiplicity of proceedings.
An affidavit sworn to by Mrs Cynthia Akunaeziri, a manager at the bank, detailed the Letters of Credit facilities involved and stated that the Lagos action seeks not only recovery of debt but also enforcement of the bank’s banker’s lien over goods financed through the facilities.
The affidavit further disclosed that the Lagos State High Court, upon striking out the earlier suit, directed FHT Mega Express to undertake corrective publications to neutralise alleged damaging public information earlier circulated against the bank.
Parallex Bank insisted that the Abuja suit was filed solely to obtain interim reliefs earlier refused and to derail the determination of the substantive dispute already before the Federal High Court.
The FCT High Court has adjourned the matter to February 4, 2026, for hearing of the bank’s preliminary objection seeking dismissal of the suit in its entirety.
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