United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc has requested a Lagos court docket to ship 9 folks linked to Western Metal Products Co. (WEMPCO) to jail.
The financial institution alleges that they pressured a court-appointed receiver out of the metal group’s Ogun State manufacturing facility and the applying is the most recent step in UBA’s effort to recuperate N61.45 billion it says the commercial conglomerate owes.
The committal discover was filed on the Federal High Court and printed in The Nation on Tuesday (Oct. 27) beneath an order permitting service by newspaper.
It accuses the respondents of “wilful, deliberate and orchestrated disobedience” of an April 2 order and asks that they keep in jail till they comply.
Those named are Lewis Shui Noor Tung, Phillip Shui Che Tung, Alhaji M.A. Ola Yusuf, Tung Lawrence Blake, Alli Aare Hadji Tokunbo, Paul Shui Po Tung, Robert Tung, CL Ip and Taiwo Alli. All are listed at 18 Wempco Road, Ogba, Ikeja.
Alli is managing director of Nigerian Enamelware Co. Plc, which is listed on the Nigerian Exchange and is among the 17 defendant corporations. Robert Tung sits on its board.
On April 2, Justice Akintayo Aluko froze as much as N61.45 billion of WEMPCO-linked funds throughout 27 banks and fintechs.
He additionally appointed Romeo Ese Michael receiver-manager over property not already pledged beneath a 2019 credit score settlement.
UBA’s affidavit says that after bailiffs handed over the Magboro/Ibafo plant, the respondents introduced in thugs, broke the receiver’s locks and threatened his workers with “serious injury.”
It says they saved working the enterprise and diverting its funds. None of the allegations has been examined in court docket, and WEMPCO’s response was not instantly out there.
The court docket papers additionally present failed talks.
On June 22, WEMPCO’s legal professionals at SimmonsCooper Partners, led by Dapo Akinosun, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, requested UBA for an pressing assembly. They proposed an interim standstill, a joint reconciliation of the accounts and “a structured framework for repayment.”
UBA’s lawyer, Temilolu Adamolekun, additionally a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, replied the subsequent day. He questioned how the identical firm “deploying physical violence on ground and resorting to self-help” may ask for dialogue, however agreed to fulfill.
The two sides met at UBA’s Marina head workplace on June 26 and agreed a joint inspection of the Magboro web site for July 2. WEMPCO and its legal professionals didn’t present up and have since “gone incommunicado,” the affidavit says.
The financial institution says the plant has stayed beneath the respondents’ management since then.
MoneyCentral first reported the WEMPCO motion on Oct. 16, when UBA gained a judgment in opposition to Stallion Group utilizing the identical receiver.
Justice Akintayo Aluko on April 2 froze as much as N61,445,695,993.76 of WEMPCO throughout 27 banks and fintechs and appointed the receiver-manager.
Under the April 2 order, banks and fintech platforms together with Moniepoint, OPay and Kuda should disclose and maintain any balances belonging to the defendants. The receiver’s powers additionally cowl two Wärtsilä energy mills “wherever they may be found.”
The different defendants embody Lagos Oriental Hotel Ltd., United Rolling Mills Ltd., Wempco Steel Mill Co. and Prime Nigeria Tiles Co.
WEMPCO was based by Ok.F. Tung, who first got here to Nigeria in 1967.
The case exams whether or not Nigerian court docket receivers can really take management of a borrower’s property. A committal order in opposition to WEMPCO’s controlling shareholders would ship a powerful message to different persistent debtors.
