Four directors of the troubled news magazine, Newswatch, Ray Ekpu, Dan Agbese, Yakubu Mohammed and Soji Akinrinade – have asked a Federal High Court in Lagos to dismiss a suit by businessman Jimoh Ibrahim.
They calimed the suit was without basis.
The directors, who were in court yesterday contended that the suit showed no reasonable cause of action against them and that Ibrahim was not authorised by Newswatch to sue them.
Their lawyer, Adekunle Oyesanya (SAN), said an alternate ground on which his clients opposed the suit was that it was wrongly instituted.
He argued that the plaintiff ought not to have begun the suit via an originating summons because the issues raised are contentious and would require that parties call witnesses to resolve.
Oyesanya observed that the originating summons showed that the plaintiff merely told a story of a business transaction between two parties, how the defendants purportedly resigned and how they entered into a contract over the company’s shares.
He argued that as against what was required, the plaintiff failed to raise any complaint against the defendants.
The counsel argued that the share purchase agreement between the parties did not preclude the defendants from declaring a trade dispute.
Oyesanya said contrary to the plaintiff’s argument, the agreement contained a clause which allows a party to terminate the agreement.
“There is no complaint in the affidavit that the defendants are trying to terminate the agreement.
“That would have been an issue. But there is no such complaint.
“Instead, they created an imaginary dispute outside the agreement by parties and rushed to the court.
“In their claim, they have not made any complaint that is worthy of the court’s consideration,” he argued.
Responding, the plaintiff’s lawyer, Adenrele Adegborioye, insisted that his clients’ suit was competent.
He also faulted the defendants’ objection on grounds that it was faulty.
Adegborioye argued that by failing to accompany their objection with an affidavit, the defendants’ objection should be struck out.
“Where a party files an objection which raises issues of fact or mix law and fact, it must file an affidavit to support the preliminary objection, failure of which renders it incompetent,” he said.
Adegborioye contended that the defendant’s objection dealt with issues of fact.
He further argued that by contending that the suit showed no cause of action, the defendants have admitted their issues raised by the plaintiffs in the suit.
He argued that the plaintiffs have raised enough issues in the suit to warrant the court’s intervention.
In the suit filed by Ibrahim, his company, Global Media Mirror Limited and Newswatch Communications Ltd, the plaintiffs set six questions for the court’s determination and sought six declarative reliefs and an order.
They prayed the court to, among others, restrain Ekpu, Agbese, Mohammed and Akinrinade from further acting as directors of Newswatch on grounds that they had allegedly resigned voluntarily from the positions.
Justice Okon Abang adjourned till December 7 for them to further adopt their addresses to enable the court deliver its ruling within the stipulated three months.