Lukman Olabiyi
Justice Babatunde Quadri, of the Federal High Court, Abuja has restrained Cyprian Okechukwu Igweh from further parading himself as the Chairman/Managing Director or Chief Executive Officer of Bolingo Hotels and Towers Limited.
The court gave the order while delivering in a suit Cyprian Okechukwu Igweh versus his siblings. The judge declared that by virtue of the notice dated June 15, 2009, by the board of directors of the hotel and the ordinary resolution dated July 6, 2007, Igweh, had been removed as the Chairman, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the hotel.
On the financial status of the hotel, the court ordered Igweh to give account of his stewardship to all the interested parties in the suit from October 16, 2006, till date of judgments (December 14, 2018) within 14 days.
Besides, the court declared that the 200, 000, 000 units of shares of the late Chief Joseph Uchechukwu Igweh, in Bolingo Hotels and Towers had not been transmitted in line with the resolution of the hotel, dated May 18, 2006.
Specifically, the Judge declared that the purported transfer of the 200, 000, 000 units of shares of the late Chief Joseph Uchechukwu Igweh, in the Bolingo Hotels and Towers by Cyprian Okechukwu Igweh, to himself was ultra vires, illegal, unlawful, improper, invalid, and null and void and of no effect whatsoever, as the said shares were not transmitted with the consent, authority and approval of the board of directors of the hotel and or in line with the Articles of Association of the Bolingo Hotels and Towers Limited.
Trouble began when the late Chief Joseph Uchechukwu Igweh, died on October 22, 2005, in the Bellview plane crash at Lisa village, Ogun State. At that time, two of his children, Chijioke Igweh and Chizoba Igweh were shareholders in the company.
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There was internal wrangling over who should take control of the company based on the perception that the widow, Dr. Mrs. Becky Igweh, was making moves to have exclusive control of Bolingo Hotels and Towers Limited.
Thereafter, Dr. Mrs. Bekky Igweh, filed a suit No.: FHC/ABJ/CS/237/2006 at the Federal High Court, Abuja wherein she sued three of the children and Corporate Affairs Commission but, Cyprian Okechukwu Igweh, championed the course of his younger siblings and advised them to go back to United Kingdom while he would defend the suit filed by Dr. Bekky Igweh.
However, both parties (Cyprian and Bekky) reached an agreement and the terms of settlement were only signed by Cyprian Okechukwu Igweh. The terms of settlement was made the consent judgment of the court on October 11, 2006.
Prior to the settlement move, Cyprian Okechukwu Igweh unilaterally changed the lawyer appointed to represent his interest and that of his siblings who were defendants in the matter and unilaterally appointed Suleiman Usman, SAN, who is now the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Sokoto State.
Part of the terms of settlement was that Dr. Bekky Igweh would relinquish her shares in Bolingo Hotels and Towers and be paid 10 percent of the hotel’s value; set aside the will of their late father while Cyprian Okechukwu Igweh will be head of the family and solely handles the administration of the estate; Dr. Bekky would hand all title documents of the estate to him, and she would in turn be paid N250, 000.00 every month as upkeep; Cyprian Okechukwu Igweh would be transparent in handling the affairs of the estate.
Upon assuming those responsibilities and being granted letters of administration, Cyprian Okechukwu Igweh turned around to say that the estate belongs to him and declared himself Chairman, Managing Director, Bolingo Hotels and Towers Limited.
In a bid for other directors to correct this anomaly after discovering various infractions, they issued a notice to Cyprian Okechukwu Igweh pursuant to the Memorandum and Articles of Association of Bolingo Hotels and Towers for his removal in office.
The day after they obtained an order on June 11, 2009, to hold a board meeting of Bolingo Hotels and Towers, because Cyprian had influenced some officers in Corporate Affairs Commission to place a caveat on the file of Bolingo Hotels and Towers Ltd with CAC for preventing his siblings who were all directors from removing him from office.
Upon this, Cyprian Igweh dragged Chuma Igweh, Eyinnaya Igweh, Chijioke Igweh and Corporate Affairs Commission to Federal High Court, Abuja in the suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/343/2009 where he contended that the other directors were no longer directors because they had not paid for the shares allotted to them by virtue on the unilateral call on shares made by Cyprian Okechukwu Igweh and that the shares of their late father belonged to him.
He commenced action by writ of summons. However, the 1st – 3rd defendants filed their defense and counter claim against Bolingo Hotels and Towers Limited, Cyprian Okechukwu Igweh and Corporate Affairs Commission, where they also made their claims and reliefs to the effect that the shares of their late father in Bolingo Hotels had not been transmitted to Cyprian Okechukwu Igweh, and they were still directors in Bolingo Hotels and Towers Ltd.
Thereafter Cyprian Okechukwu Igweh, through his lawyer refused to open their case after six years upon the application of the defendants pursuant to Companies Proceedings Rules, the Writ of Summons was converted to originating summons.