The Court of Appeal sitting in Kaduna has dismissed the application filed by Hon. Sani Sha'aban challenging the judgment which ordered the sale of some of his properties in Kaduna and Kano to settle the debt owed to Alhaji Umar Faruk Abdullahi.
During the proceedings, counsel to Sani Sha'aban, Abubakar A. Muhammad, Esq., applied to withdraw their appeal filed in September of this year to enable them to consider their next line of action.
In his response, counsel to Alhaji Umar Faruk Abdullahi, Abdullahi A. Yahaya, SAN, urged the court to discountenance the application by counsel to Sani Sha'aban, on the ground that the court had on the Month of July already dismissed the said appeal upon his own application, for failure to comply with the rules governing the application.
After hearing both parties, the three-man panel of the court comprising Hon. Justice Onyekachi Aja Otisi, Hon. Justice Abimbola Osarugue Obaseki-Adejumo, and Hon. Justice Lateef Adebayo Ganiyu, rejected Sha'aban's application and reaffirmed the subsisting judgment directing him to repay the debt through the auction of his properties.
It will be recalled that the Court of Appeal in Kaduna and Kano had on four previous occasions upheld the judgment ordering the auction of the properties for debt recovery.
This marks the fifth time the courts have upheld the judgment, faulting the arguments advanced by Sha'aban's defence team.
The case stemmed from a 2018 loan agreement between Sha'aban and Abdullahi.
Court documents revealed that the loan was advanced to secure Sha'aban's release following his arrest and detention in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in the same year.
Under the agreement, Abdullahi advanced the sum of $1,000,000 and N11,200,000 to Sha'aban as an interest-free loan in line with Islamic finance principles.
The agreement, which was drafted and witnessed by Sha'aban's lawyers, was initially executed by his son and subsequently countersigned by Sha'aban upon his return from Dubai.
The loan was repayable within six months and in the same currency in which it was disbursed.
Although Sha'aban subsequently repaid the sum of $290,762, he allegedly failed to settle the outstanding balance, leading to the legal action which culminated in the enforcement proceedings affirmed by the High Courts of Kaduna and Kano States, and upheld by the Court of Appeal.