A Federal High Court in Lagos on Friday summoned top officials of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration over the controversial concessioning of the National Theatre to the nation’s apex bank and other top bankers.
The Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement between the bankers and the administration is to see a total makeover of the monument.
A firm, Topwideapeas Limited, brought a N1.26 trillion suit against the project and on Friday tabled an exparte application before the Lagos court, seeking a halt to the project.
Though its request wasn’t expressly granted, the court, presided over by Justice Ayokunle Faji, ordered the appearance of the defendants to explain the reported handover of the building to developers while a suit is subsisting over it.
Those covered by the order include the Attorney General of the Federation, Central Bank of Nigeria, Minister of Information and Culture, Access Bank of Nigeria, its Group Managing Director, Mr Herbert Wigwe, National Theatre and National Troupe of Nigeria Board and Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission Justice Faji gave the order after hearing Mr Chijioke Okoli (SAN) argued the plaintiff’s motion ex-parte, seeking an injunction to reverse the deal.
The matter was subsequently adjourned till Friday, 24 August, for hearing.
The judge ruled that the order “is pursuant to an ex-parte application by the plaintiff seeking an order suspending /staying the purported handover on or about July 12, 2020, by the 1st and 3rd defendant/respondents to the 5th-7th defendant/respondents of the National Theatre Complex, Iganmu, Lagos and the adjoining lands thereto, pending the hearing and determination of the Applicant’s motion for interlocutory injunction (by Notice filed on December 31, 2019).”
In its motion, the plaintiff sought the following: An order of mandatory injunction for a return of all the parties to the present suit, especially the Defendants/Respondents, their agents/privies or contractors, to the status quo ante lite concerning the subject-matter of the present suit, pending the hearing and determination of the Applicant’s motion for interlocutory injunction (by Notice filed on December 31, 2019).
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