Ecobank Seeks Judge’s Disqualification in Debt Recovery Case
Ecobank Nigeria Limited has urged the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta, to disqualify Justice Mohammed Idris from a suit filed against it by Honeywell Flour Mills Plc.
Honeywell, Anchorage Leisures Limited and Silaom Global Services Limited sued Ecobank before Justice Idris sitting in the Lagos division of the court over an alleged debt dispute.
But the bank, in a letter to the CJ by its Secretary, Denike Laoye, and its Chief Legal Counsel, Kehinde Dawodu, alleged that Justice Idris had been biased against it and urged Justice Auta to transfer the case to another judge.
The bank claimed that after a number of events that took place in court, it had come to the conclusion that Justice Idris was biased against it.
Among others, the bank alleged that while ruling on a contempt charge filed against it by Honeywell and others, Justice Idris said he would not hesitate to deal with the bank, anytime the plaintiffs invoked the court’s disciplinary injunction.
The bank claimed that by his action, Justice Idris had decided not to give it the “presumption of innocence as required by law.”
It urged the CJ to transfer the case to another judge.
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