Emmanuel Thomas l April 08, 2017
IKOYI, Lagos, Nigeria – The Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos was on Friday told how GtBank Plc connieved with six other defendants to corner shares belonging to the late MD of the bank, Mr. Tayo Aderinokun, while he was on his sick bed.
Joined as co-defendants with GTBank are Datamax Registrar Limited; Kanali Investments Limited; Day Waterman Company Limited; Caribod Investment Limited; Mr. Babatunwa Aderinokun; and Investment One Financial Services Limited.
Lawyer to Aderinokun’s daughter, Barrister Osaro Ebobamien (SAN) submitted that Tayo was in a state of coma when he was rushed to the hospital in London, and that he could not have held a meeting of extra-ordinary shareholders when he purportedly took a decision to divert his shares to some other companies
“My lord, at the time he was supposed to have held a meeting of the extra-ordinary meeting, the man was in coma in a London hospital. Those are matters for trial.
“Nobody, not even the GTB denies that fact. He couldn’t have taken any decision at that point, when he was alleged to have held an extra-ordinary shareholders meeting and his interest were diluted.
“My lord, when there is a kind of illegality and you take over the management, in this case the Tayo’s family property, the court will grant an injunction. It is not only on resulting trust, and resulting trust is based on ownership of GTB shares, not ownership of the companies he owned with others”, Osaro argued.
Young Oluwatise is seeking an order of perpetual injunction restraining GTBank and the rest of the defendants from acknowledging/recognising the three companies as being the beneficial owners of the rights accruing to the shares held in their names in GTBank Plc.
Opposing the application, Mr. Ebun Sofunde (SAN) urged the court to refuse to application for interlocutory injunction, saying there is no where it is alleged that Tayo owned the GTBank or the other companies.
“All we have is how he conducted his business in GTB and other companies. A Will does not establish prima facie ownership. A Will will only explain how to share what the Testator has. He cannot will what he doesn’t have”, Sofunde argued.
Appearing for the 6th defendant, Mr. Babatunwa Aderinokun, Barrister Olumide Aju, also opposed the interlocutory order, saying Tayo said, in his will, he owned the majority shares in those companies.
“He did not say ‘I single handedly own the GTB and those companies’. By now Tayo did not own any share in GTB again. Executives have met and distributed the GTB shares to the companies Tayo mentioned. So the talk of GTB shares owned by Tayo does not arise again. The shares have been given to the beneficiaries. The applicant wants to frustrate the whole essence of justice and should be refused”, he submitted.
Eight-year-old Aderinokun, who sued through her mother, Mrs. Salamotu Aderinokun, alleged manipulation of her late father’s shares in GTBank.
The young Aderinokun, alleged before Justice Mohammed Idriss that the defendants breached the implied contract between them and her late father, as regards the deceased’s shares in GTBank.
She wants the court to order an enquiry into the volume of her late father’s shares in GTBank, held in the names of the three companies.
She claimed that contrary to her late father’s instruction, GTBank and Datamax Registrar Limited had paid over N1bn as dividends in the names of the companies to unauthorised persons, who were masquerading as the beneficial owners of her late father’s shares in GTBank Plc.
The payments, the young Aderinokun claimed, were made to the said unauthorised persons following various Annual General Meetings held between June 14, 2011 and March 31, 2015.
Further hearing has been fixed for May 3, 2017
