Don’t Interfere with Stanbic IBTC Operations, Court Orders FRCN

A Federal High sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, presided over by Justice Ibrahim Buba has stopped the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN), from disrupting the activities of Stanbic IBTC Holding Plc.The judge who granted the interlocutory injunction restraining FRCN and its officers from “interfering with, or otherwise impeding, obstructing, molesting, harassing or hindering” the plaintiff’s operations, also ordered the FRCN not to prevent the plaintiff or its subsidiaries from carrying on with their lawful businesses.The court further restrained the council from inviting the entire Stanbic IBTC Holdings’ board of directors to any meeting in connection with the defendant’s statutory investigation of the plaintiff’s statements.Justice Buba declared that the orders will be in force pending the hearing and determination of the proceedings.According to Buba, “The whole essence of having a court of law in any civilised society is to ensure everything is done according to law and not otherwise.“No court will stop a statutory authority from performing its statutory duties. However, the court must emphatically add that where it is alleged that a statutory authority is acting ultra vires its statutory powers, the courts have powers and are imbued with jurisdiction to enquire into whether it true or false.”Justice Buba adjourned the case till November 6, for hearing of a motion to join a shareholder in the suit.