Justice Buba of the Federal High Court in Lagos will on December 14 deliver judgment in a suit filed by StanbicIBTC Holdings Plc against the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC)
Justice Buba fixed the date after both parties adopted and argued their written addresses, in the case which StanbicIBTC Holdings Plc is challenging the powers of FRC to impose sanctions on it and its management.
FRC last month suspended the Financial Reporting Numbers of the bank’s Chairman Atedo Peterside, and its Chief Executive, Mrs Sola David-Borha, as well as barred them from vouching for the integrity of any financial statements in Nigeria.
The council had based its sanctions on issues raised by the bank’s minority shareholders led by the Mahtani brothers who own the Churchgate conglomerate, to some other regulatory agencies such as NOTAP, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), among others.
StanbicIBTC had sued FRC, praying the court to determine whether the regulatory body acted beyond its powers.
It also sought a declaration that failure to register a “registrable” agreement under the NOTAP Act is not a criminal offence.
While arguing FRC’s objections Tuesday, its lawyer, Olusina Sofola (SAN), said IBTC did not comply with Section 66 (3) of the FRC Act which states that anyone dissatisfied with any decision should appeal to its technical committee.
Sofola urged the court to strike out StanbicIBTC’s suit saying, “All the internal remedies must be exhausted, which they have not done here.”
Sofola also informed the court that StanbicIBTC was seeking to review FRC’s decisions, therefore they should have brought an application for a judicial review, which renders the plaintiff’s originating summons incompetent.
He also informed the court that the bank should have sued the Minister of trade who made the regulations on the basis of which sanctions were imposed on the plaintiff, not FRC which merely implemented them.
-Leadership