Court dismisses AMCON’s receivership suit against GHL as abuse of court process

The federal high court in Lagos has dismissed a suit filed by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) seeking to enforce a receivership over General Hydrocarbons Limited (GHL).

The court held that the suit was an abuse of court process and was commenced in violation of existing court orders.

In a ruling delivered on December 12, 2025, Akintayo Aluko held that AMCON’s purported receiver, Seyi Akinwunmi, and his lawyer, Bidemi Ademola-Bello, who is also counsel to AMCON and its managing director on a sister suit, acted in breach of an earlier restraining order issued by Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa, another judge of a federal high court, in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/1903/2025, which had prohibited AMCON, its agents and privies from appointing or continuing with the appointment of a receiver over GHL.

The court agreed with the objection filed by Nduka Obaigbena, chairman of GHL, who argued that the new suit was incompetent because there was already a substantive matter pending before Allagoa involving the same parties and subject matter.

Aluko noted that Akinwunmi and his counsel commenced the second suit despite the subsisting restraining order issued on September 23, 2025, which barred AMCON from appointing or continuing with the appointment of a receiver over General Hydrocarbons Limited and its assets.

The court held that because Akinwunmi was appointed by AMCON, he was an agent of AMCON and therefore bound by the earlier orders.

The judge also stated that Akinwunmi and Ademola-Bello “deliberately suppressed facts” when they sought and secured interim orders in the new suit without disclosing the existence of Allagoa’s prior restraining orders.

The ruling added that if the earlier orders had been disclosed, the court would not have granted the interim orders of 24th October 2025.

The court noted that both suits involved the same parties and same subject matter, making the initiation of a fresh action unnecessary and improper.

The court held that filing a new suit was a clear waste of the court’s time and resources, and that such conduct should be frowned upon.

Consequently, the judge dismissed AMCON’s receivership suit and set aside all interim orders earlier granted on October 24, 2025.

TheCable reached out to Akinwunmi via phone calls and messages for comments but there was no response.

BACKGROUND

On December 8, Lewis-Allagoa reaffirmed the validity of the restraining orders earlier granted against AMCON in the main suit between GHL and the corporation. The orders, issued on September 23 and reaffirmed on October 22, 2025, barred AMCON, its agents, assigns, privies or affiliates from taking any steps or continuing with any steps whatsoever relating to the appointment of a receiver or enforcement actions over the assets of GHL.

In that ruling, the court held that all actions taken by AMCON’s purported receiver, including the instruction appointing Oluseye Opasanya, a senior advocate of Nigeria, as counsel for GHL, were done in violation of subsisting court orders. The judge also ruled that Opasanya could not represent GHL because he had previously acted for AMCON in the same transaction, creating a conflict of interest.

The judge had faulted Ademola-Bello for going before another judge with a fresh suit, despite having undertaken to abide by the court’s orders.

Lewis-Allagoa had also noted in his ruling that Aluko, “without being informed of the proceedings and orders of this honourable court…granted the interim reliefs sought by Seyi Akinwunmi Esq., the purported Receiver appointed over the claimant by the 1st Defendant (AMCON) in this suit”.

Lewis-Allagoa reaffirmed that the restraining orders would remain in force “until set aside”.