The Court of Appeal sitting in Kaduna has dismissed an application for stay of execution filed by a former member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Sani Sha’aban, seeking to stop the auction of some of his properties.
The application sought to suspend the execution of a judgment of the Kaduna State High Court, which ordered the auction of certain assets belonging to Sha’aban to recover an outstanding debt owed to Alhaji Umar Faruk Abdullahi following an alleged breach of a loan agreement.
Counsel to the appellant, Halima Fumilola Olodo, had urged the appellate court to grant a stay of execution and an extension of time in relation to the High Court judgment.
She argued that the court should give her client an opportunity to repay the outstanding debt rather than allow the judgment creditor to proceed with the auction of the assets.
However, counsel to the respondent, Abdullahi Yahya, SAN, opposed the application, arguing that the appellants had failed to comply with procedural requirements from the commencement of the appeal.
Yahya cited alleged non-compliance with the rules governing the filing of appeals and the appellant’s failure to obey the lower court’s directive on the timeline for repayment of the debt.
He also urged the court to award costs against the appellants, contending that the application had wasted judicial time and disregarded the earlier order of the lower court.
In her ruling, Justice Onyekachi Aja Otisi dismissed the application on the ground of non-compliance with the Court of Appeal Rules governing the filing of appeals.
The court also awarded costs of ₦200,000 against the appellants.
Reacting to the ruling, Yahya said the dismissal had cleared the way for enforcement of the lower court’s judgment ordering the auction of some of Sha’aban’s assets to recover the outstanding debt owed to Abdullahi.
Olodo, on her part, confirmed that the application was dismissed due to non-compliance with certain procedural requirements for filing an appeal before the Court of Appeal.
The dispute arose from a loan agreement executed in 2018 between Sha’aban, also known as Dan Buran Zazzau, and Abdullahi.
According to court documents, the loan was advanced to assist Sha’aban in securing his release from detention in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, following legal challenges he faced there in the same year.
The judgment creditor reportedly advanced a total of $1 million and ₦11.2 million to Sha’aban under an interest-free loan arrangement based on Islamic financial principles.
The agreement stipulated that the loan would be repaid within six months and in the same currency in which it was advanced.
It was reportedly prepared and witnessed by Sha’aban’s legal representatives, signed initially by his son and later countersigned by Sha’aban upon his return to Nigeria.
Court records indicated that Sha’aban repaid $290,762 out of the $1 million loan but allegedly failed to settle the outstanding balance, prompting the legal action that led to the judgment and the order for auction of his assets.
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