LAGOS — The board and mangement of the Stallion Group of Companies have returned to the drawing board in a bid to reactivate three major investments in Nigeria following the decision by the Nigerian government to reinstate their rights and privileges as corporate citizens in line with various court decisions in the country.

The Federal Government recently directed the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and two agencies—Nigeria Customs Service and the Immigration Services — to comply with two court judgments, which cleared the Stallion Group belonging to the Vaswani Brothers who were last year deported from the country for alleged duty evasion and expatriate quota abuse.

Although the Vaswanis are of Indian parentage and hold British passports, most members of the family were born and have lived in Nigeria where they have engaged in business for close to five decades.

The proposed industries are a motor vehicle assembly plant, a steel production, power generation and a large-scale agricultural scheme to produce rice locally to curtail the present high level of its importation.

In a major decision by Justice A.O. Ajakaiye of the Federal High Court, Lagos division in September last year, the judge dismissed the allegation of the N2.5 billion duty evasion brought against the Stallion Group by the Customs Service and directed it to withdraw the demand.

The judge described the demand as irregular and that the amount hitherto paid by the Stallion Group and other plaintiffs (importers) was in order.

Shortly after this, Justice Mohammed Liman of the Federal High Court, Lagos in November last year nullified the April 2009 deportation of the Vaswanis and other expatriates working for Stallion.