“With the outcome of the judgment, stakeholders and potential investors are hereby advised that there is no encumbrance or pending litigation on Lagos Airport Hotel”
A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has dismissed a case instituted by Holidays & Tours Limited against Odu’a Investment Company Limited for lack of merit.
In the judgment delivered by Justice I.N Buba, he affirmed that there was no valid and subsisting contract between Odu’a Investment Company Limited and Holidays & Tours Ltd as claimed by Holidays & Tours Limited in the case.
Holiday & Tours in the case alleged that there was a subsisting contract between Odu’a Investment Company Limited and itself whereby Lagos Airport Hotel, a subsidiary Company of the Odu’a Group was leased to it on “Lease, Redevelop, Operate and Transfer basis.
Holiday & Tours therefore placed a Caveat Emptor [buyers beware] in one of the National Newspaper of April 21, 2017 warning potential investors to disregard the expression of interest advert placed by KPMG on behalf of Odu’a for the repositioning of Lagos Airport Hotel.
Axcording to Victor Ayetoro, Head Corporate Affairs, Kdu’a Investment Company Limited, it was stated in the judgment that Holidays & Tours failed to establish or prove that there was a contract between it and Odu’a and therefore the plaintiff was not entitled to any relief for an award of damages or injunction as being sought.
While dismissing the case for lack of merit, the trial Judge referred to Holidays & Tours as “a busy body, gold digging and dishonest suitor trying to reap where it never sowed”.
The Judge said further that “the relief being sought by the plaintiff is the most egregious relief. The plaintiff was a small outfit which before its bid in the Lease, Redevelop, Operate and transfer scheme never operated a major hotel in Nigeria but now sought this gold-digging prayer to be granted 1billion Naira gratuitously”.
According to Justice Buba “the plaintiff is in the mildest being clever by half and in the strongest of terms plain dishonest” noting that the suit filed by it is a fund-raising project by the plaintiff while other reliefs have been thrown in as red herrings to give its impression that plaintiff want to perform the contract.
The case instituted by Holidays & Tours was therefore dismissed as unmeritorious.
With the outcome of the judgment, stakeholders and potential investors are hereby advised that there is no encumbrance or pending litigation on Lagos Airport Hotel.
