“It has been the policy of this Court to give priority to any matter that will affect the economy of this country,” Justice of the Supreme Court,” Musa Dattijo Muhammad has ruled.
Muhammad made the declaration Monday while leading a panel of the apex court and adjourned hearing in the $15 billion Petro Union fraud case to 7th October 2021.
The Petro Union case in which the Appellants are asking the Supreme Court to set aside a £2.556 billion judgment entered by the Federal High Court in 2014 against the Central Bank of Nigeria, Union Bank of Nigeria, the Minister of Finance and the Attorney-General of the Federation, came up at the Supreme Court Monday.
The judgment, which Petro Union allegedly obtained by fraud was given jointly and severally against all the four Respondents (i.e. CBN, Union Bank, Minister of Finance and Attorney-General of the Federation) and attracts interest at the rate of 15% per annum between 1994 and 2014 and thereafter at the rate of 10% per annum until it is paid. Today, the total judgment sum is about $15.5 billion.
When the case was called, the lingering controversy over how the proceeds was to be shared and who had the right to represent Petro Union came up again with two lawyers – Joe Kyari Gadzama, SAN and Onyechi Egwuonwu – announcing separate appearances for Petro Union.
While Egwuonwu informed the court he was briefed to institute the case leading to the judgment at the lower court, he said when the matter got to the Court of Appeal, he invited Gadzama to lead the legal team for Petro Union as the “instructing counsel”.
He also told the court that following his application to disqualify Gadzama from further appearing in the matter and to be disbarred, Gadzama hurriedly informed the court of his intention to withdraw his appearance in the case and followed this up by filing an affidavit to the same effect.
He argued that, having done so, Gadzama was stopped from changing his mind and continuing to act as counsel to Petro Union.
Egwuonwu further argued that having been instructed on a contingency fee basis which means that his fee is tied to a portion of the judgment sum and having been instructed through an irrevocable power of attorney, he could not be pushed out of the case.
After a futile effort by the court to have the two counsel reconciled, the court enquired from three persons allegedly representing Petro Union who their lawyers are and they each confirmed in open court that their lead lawyer is now Gadzama.
The Petro Union representatives also said they had asked Egwuonwu to work together with him to no avail.
Following this confirmation, the Court informed Egwuonwu that he could no longer be heard in the proceedings, thus paving the way for Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN leading other senior lawyers for the Appellants, to introduce his pending application.
