Court Warns Jimoh Ibrahim, NICON Against Multiple Suits Over N70bn AMCON Debt

Justice Tijjani Ringim of the Federal High Court Lagos Division on Thursday cautioned NICON Insurance Limited against what it called ‘forum shopping,’ the act of filing multiple charges in various courts of concurrent jurisdiction on the same matter, in a case between the Asset Management Corporation of Nigerian, as well as Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim and NICON Insurance.

Justice Ringim issued a stern warning after lawyers to Ibrahim discontinued two identical suits it filed against the AMCON, while upholding the submission of the corporation’s counsel Mr Kemi Pinheiro, (SAN), that both suits – FHC/L/CS/1116/2021 and FHC/L/CS/1115/2021 were near identical to a third suit numbered FHC/ABJ/CS/760/2021.

Pinheiro had contended that the plaintiff had been embarking on forum shopping in filing two suits within two weeks and withdrawing the same. These suits in question were FHC/L/CS/1051/21 and FHC/L/CS/1052/21 both filed at the Federal High Court Lagos.

He had prayed the court to “stop this attitude” by dismissing the suit and awarding punitive costs to serve as a deterrent to other recalcitrant debtors who may want to deceive the court in the future.

Although counsel to NICON Insurance, Adenrele Adegorioye, opposed him, Justice Ringim, in a bench ruling, struck out the matter, as according to him: “I have listened to the various legal submissions of counsel and facts before me. I am satisfied that the proper order to make is that of striking out and, same having been withdrawn, is hereby struck out.”

Justice Ringim, therefore,    warned the plaintiff “not to embark on a voyage of forum shopping because upon perusal of court records – which I am permitted to do under the rule – I can see that this same plaintiff filed the same two set of suits on the 23rd of August which was withdrawn on the 28th of August. Subsequently, the same plaintiff filed another suit seeking the same relief. The court is not a forum for a game of chance. The court will frown at such if this repeats itself.”

Recall that the matter between Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim and AMCON has been interminable since the loan was purchased by the government debt recovery agency during the first phase of Eligible Bank Assets (EBA) purchases from Union Bank in the early days of AMCON.

The corporation in a statement on Saturday said its management remains determined to recover the nearly N70bn owed it by Barrister Ibrahim and his companies in the interest of the Nigerian economy and the public in general. But in a desperate bid to subvert justice, the businessman has been hopping from one court to the other.

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