…Lawyers seek enforcement of court ruling
Following the nullification of an interim board of directors for Emerging Markets Telecommunications Service, (EMTS), operators of 9Mobile by the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos last Friday, counsels to one of the investors, Spectrum Wireless Communication Ltd, John Achimugu and Reuben Atabo Esq have called on would be investors to hands off billion dollar investment.
Addressing Journalists in Kaduna over the weekend, the two lawyers buttressed that with the court ruling, no new investor is expected to pump funds into the 9Mobile business until all legal and economic interest of original investors are exhausted and put into proper perspectives.
They noted, “When we discovered that there is a misrepresentation of facts about the number of directors on the board of EMTS, we pointed it out to the court for nullification, while EMTS claimed that only seven directors made up the board, our investigation showed that there were 20 directors, the court upheld our findings with impeccable evidence.
They added, “An ex parte order is an interim order often granted in the absence of the other party in a case. The nullification followed dismissal of the Preliminary Objection filed by counsel to United Capital Trustees Ltd, Professor Ajayi SAN, in response to the application by Spectrum Wireless, a shareholder of EMTS.
“Spectum’s application prayed for a nullification of the ex parte order by Hon.Justice Ibrahim N.Buba of the Federal High Court and claimed that the order was obtained by misrepresentation of facts that alienated its interests in the EMTS.”
“Our client’ along with other investors in 2009 invest to the tune close to N100 million dollars in EMTS, it was this N100 million dollars that formed the basis of the capital and provided the infrastructure for EMTS and it was this infrastructure that enabled EMTS to obtain a loan of about 1.2 billion dollars from consortium of banks.”
He explained that Etisalat Group, which held 45 per cent of the shares in Etisalat Nigeria and 25 per cent of the preference shares, had earlier relinquished its stake in the Nigerian firm over $1.2 billion debt being owed 13 Nigerian banks.