Oyedepo dragged to court over breach of contract

A Federal High Court in Lagos will on March 25, 2015 decide whether or not to dismiss a suit filed against the founder of the Living Faith Church, Bishop David Oyedepo by a stock brokerage firm, over breach of contract.
The suit was filed by a stockbroking firm, Value Line Securities and Investment Limited, and its Managing Director, Samuel Enyinnaya.
The plaintiffs are seeking, among others, N1.86 billion from Oyedepo, his family, his book publishing company and the Winners’ Chapel over alleged breach of contract on a N9 billion investments entrusted to the plaintiffs.
They prayed the court to declare as illegal the freezing of their bank accounts by NSE and to make an order to immediately unfreeze their accounts.
At the resumed hearing of the case yesterday, Oyedepo’s lawyer, Mr. Chioma Okwuanyi, informed the court of his client’s preliminary objection to the stockbroker’s claims.
Okwuanyi contended that the Federal High Court lacked jurisdiction to adjudicate on a matter pertaining to capital market.
He argued that by the provisions of Section 34 of the Investment and Securities Act, only the Investment and Securities Tribunal had the vested authority to entertain a dispute between a capital market operator and his client.
They however said trouble started when Oyedepo wanted to buy his first private jet and the World Mission Agency Inc ordered the sale of majority of the securities in the investment portfolio, and that despite the professional advice to the contrary, the plaintiffs were made to sell the securities to raise the N3bn needed for the jet, a development which the plaintiffs claimed brought about huge losses to the investment.

But Oyedepo’s lawyer, Okwuanyi, said that the losses recorded by the investment were due to the plaintiffs’ recklessness with the marging loan purportedly obtained by the plaintiffs.
Okwuanyi further submitted that if it was true as the plaintiffs had said that the matter was “a simple contract” bordering on investment portfolio management, the state High Court and not the Federal High Court had jurisdiction on the case.
Besides, the lawyer argued that the plaintiffs’ suit as presently constituted before Justice Mohammed Yunusa was premature, as the plaintiff had yet to explore all the avenues laid down to resolve such dispute before heading for the court.