Concealed facts: Court lifts restraining order against Trucks Transit Parks MD

Justice Akintayo Aluko of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has discharged a temporary injunction which was earlier issued against the Managing Director of Trucks Transit Parks Ltd (TTP), Mr Jama Onwubuariri, due to an order of status quo earlier granted by Justice Daniel Osiagor of the Federal High Court on July 20, 2022, an information that was previously hidden from the court before the order was initially granted.

Justice Aluko had on August 11, 2022, made the interim order restraining TTP co-founder Onwubuariri, pending the hearing and determination of the firm’s Motion on Notice in a suit delineated FHC/L/CS/1501/2022, following an ex parte application by Chinedu Anaje, holding the brief of Ghoyega Oyewole (SAN).

Onwubuariri had through his counsel, Mrs Funke Agbor (SAN), filed an application seeking a stay of execution and discharge of the said injunction and at the resumed hearing of the matter for arguments on the discharge of the application, Agbor had argued among others that, the plaintiff misled the court into granting the order by concealing several material facts.

She contended that the plaintiff did not disclose to the court in the application for an injunction, facts such as the existence of an order of status quo earlier granted by Justice Daniel Osiagor also of the Federal High Court on July 20, 2022, in respect of the same facts and the violation of the status quo order by the deponent of the affidavit, Mr Temidayo Adeboye, supporting the plaintiff’s ex parte application for the interim order.

Responding, the plaintiff’s counsel opposed the application for discharge, arguing that it made a disclosure of all the relevant facts and prayed the court not to discharge the order.

ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

• Tinubu Is A Billionaire Without A Business; Obi Is Atiku’s Creation —Melaye, Atiku’s Campaign Spokesman

• Tinubu Sympathises With Ganduje Over Kano Building Collapse

• Fulani Herders Kill 6 In Fresh Attack On Benue Community

But Justice Aluko upheld Onwubuariri’s argument that the ex parte injunction against him would not have been granted in the first place if the plaintiff fully disclosed the existence of the order of 20th July 2022 by Justice Osiagor and other matters before the judge.

“The subject matter, in this case, bears great similarity and affinity with the one pending before Osiagor J. I agree with the plaintiff’s counsel that the plaintiff made somewhat disclosure in paragraph 26 of the affidavit in support of the ex parte application regarding pending cases between the parties.

“I also agree with counsel to the defendant that such disclosure is not a full disclosure the law expects from an applicant like the plaintiff to get an interim order of injunction by way of ex parte application.

“The seeming disclosure in paragraph 86 of the affidavit in support of the ex parte application is so scanty or inadequate and cannot be described as anything close to disclosure.

“I, therefore, agree with the applicant’s counsel that if all these material facts – which I consider fundamental – were disclosed by the plaintiff before applying for this ex parte order, the order of this court made on the 11th of August 2022, would have been declined.

“The appropriate order to make in the circumstances is one discharging the said order. The application hereby succeeds. Consequently, the ex parte order of this court made on the 11th of August 2022 is hereby discharged,” the court held.

The suit was adjourned till September 9 for hearing of pending applications.

Reacting to the order after the court’s decision, the counsel stated that the ruling implies that, Onwubuariri remains the Managing Director of TTP and reinforces its earlier information to the public “that the injunction did not declare or appoint one Mr. Temidayo Adeboye or anyone else as the Acting Managing Director of TTP.”

They further advised all stakeholders and the general public to disregard anyone parading himself or herself as the Acting Managing Director of TTP, adding that “anyone who transacts with such person does so at his or her own risk.”