Chief Raymond Dokpesi Loses Bid to Stop Bankruptcy Suit Brought Against Him by Fidelity Bank

Chairman of Daar Communications Limited, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, Wednesday  lost his bid to stay further proceedings in the bankruptcy case brought against him by Fidelity Bank Plc as a Federal High Court in Lagos dismissed his application to that effect.

In his ruling, the trial judge, Justice Mohammed Idris, held that  the ground on which the application was founded was baseless. Dokpesi, had in his application, prayed the court to stay proceedings pending the hearing of an appeal he filed against a ruling by the court on October 5 this year. The court had on October 5 decided to hear simultaneously, the objection by Dokpesi and the substantive suit on the ground that they would be decided solely on documentary evidence.

Justice Idris, who upheld the counter argument by Fidelity Bank’s lawyer, Mr. Joseph Nwobike (SAN), against the application, held that there was no pending appeal as claimed by Dokpesi. Dokpesi’s lawyer, Mr. Mike Ozekhome (SAN), had, while moving the application, told the court that he filed a notice of appeal before the appellate court and accompanied same with a motion for leave to appeal out of time.

He contented that his notice of appeal, filed along with the motion for extension of time to appeal, could pass as a valid appeal. He said the stay of proceedings at the lower court would serve the interest of justice as the success of the appeal could end the case.

Justice Idris, in the ruling, agreed with Nwobike that what Ozekhome filed for his client was a motion for extension of time to apply for leave to appeal out of time, an application, which did not amount to a valid appeal. The court held that an appeal could only be valid when filed at the registry of the Court of Appeal and a receipt obtained by the appellant to that effect, a situation, it said was absent in Dokpesi’s case.

“The filing of a motion for leave to appeal out of time cannot be said to be a valid appeal. It cannot be a basis or ground for stay of proceedings. There is no authority that supports the ground on which the application is grounded. It therefore fails and is accordingly dismissed,” the court held.

Justice Idris awarded a N5,000 cost against Dokpesi, in favour of the bank and fixed December 1 for the hearing of the notice of preliminary objection by the businessman and the substantive suit. The bank is, by the bankruptcy suit, praying the court to among others, declare the businessman bankrupt over his alleged inability to repay some facilities, estimated at about N7.5 billion it offered Daar Communications in 2009 to part-finance its daily operations.

The loans also said to have been deployed to Daar Communication’s broadcast of the FIFA under-17 World Cup hosted by the country, were said to have been guaranteed by Dokpesi.

Source: ThisDayLive