By Innocent Anaba

Lagos—A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, has refused an application by Ecobank to suspend the Honeywell’s suit against the bank.

Trial judge, Justice Idris stated that it cannot grant Ecobank’s application because the Federal High Court was bound by the final judgement of the Court of Appeal which was delivered on March 30, 2016, directing that the matter be given an accelerated hearing at the Federal High Court.

The Honeywell suit was instituted in 2015 and Honeywell is praying the court to determine whether or not Honeywell was indebted to Ecobank.

In response to the suit, Ecobank challenged the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court to hear the suit.

The objection was rejected by the Federal High Court and Justice Idris ruled that the court indeed had jurisdiction to hear the matter.

Ecobank appealed this decision at the Court of Appeal. Aligning with the decision of the Federal High Court on its jurisdiction to hear the matter, the Court of Appeal by its final judgement of March 30, 2016 dismissed Ecobank’s appeal and ordered the accelerated hearing of the matter before Justice Idris.

When the matter last came up on May 10, 2016 (following the judgment of the Court of Appeal), Ecobank’s counsel informed Justice Idris that a notice of appeal challenging the decision of the Court of Appeal had been filed at the Supreme Court.

An application for a stay of the execution of the judgment of the Court of Appeal had also be filed at the Court of Appeal. Ecobank therefore, requested that the proceedings before Justice Idris be stayed pending the outcome of the application for a stay of execution at the Court of Appeal.