Court upholds Appointment of receiver by UBA over Stallion

A Federal High Court in Lagos on Friday, upheld as valid, the appointment of the receiver Romeo Ese, by the United Bank for Africa (UBA) as valid.

Justice Daniel Osiagor upheld the receiver in a N156 billion debt recovery suit by UBA against Stallion Group and its subsidiaries.

Osiagor granted reliefs sought by the bank, and affirmed its jurisdiction to hear the case.

Among other reliefs granted, the court affirmed the right of the receiver to take possession of the mortgaged property and be entitled to seek protective orders, adding that the defendants did not dispute their indebtedness, even though they challenged the amount claimed.

According to the court, the reconciliation of accounts between the parties did not negate the underlying indebtedness.

IJustice Osiagor, consequently, dismissed objections raised by the 12th defendant, Barbedos Ventures Ltd, on grounds that it failed to establish any proprietary rights over the mortgaged property.

The court restrained the defendants from diverting the receivables due to them from government agencies, and reinforced the bank’s ability to protect its recovery interests.

When the plaintiff filed the suit in October 2023, it claimed that stallion was indebted to the tune of N156 billion, while the defendant on its part argued that the claim was entirely false.

In its claims, the bank avers that it granted several credit facilities to Stallion Nigeria Ltd in 2014 on the agreement that the credit facilities could be utilised by other companies within the Stallion Group in accordance with the terms of the offer letter.

The bank averred that the defendants pledged assets in Kano, Port Harcourt and Lagos as security for the loans.

In an affidavit deposed to by the bank's group head, Recovery and Remedial Management Department, Mr Anthony Chilaka, it averred that on Oct. 18, 2023, chairman of Stallion Group, Sunil Vaswani made a personal guarantee in respect of the facilities.

He averred that Stallion Motors was awarded a contract by the Federal Government in 2014 to supply 700 Ashok Leyland trucks and Stallion troop carrying vehicles, and 50 Falcon seater buses to be used by the military.

He averred that this was on the agreement that the receivables from the government would be paid into Stallion’s account with UBA.

He averred that on delivering the vehicles, Stallion Motors allegedly asked the government to make the first payment of 50 million dollars into its Dubai account and received N8.2 billion into its offshore account instead of the UBA account.

The bank averred that this was contrary to the earlier understanding between parties, adding that the defendants failed to settle its debts totalling N156 billion.