Supreme Court sets aside Court of Appeal orders in Nestoil, Neconde dispute

The Supreme Court has set aside a series of ex parte orders issued by the Court of Appeal in a long-running dispute involving Nestoil Limited and Neconde Energy Limited.

In a unanimous judgment delivered by a five-member panel in Abuja on Monday, the apex court ruled that the Court of Appeal erred in granting what it described as far-reaching restorative ex parte orders.

The Supreme Court criticised the appellate court’s decision, describing the development as a “judicial tragedy” and warning against the growing practice of granting substantive reliefs through ex parte proceedings.

According to the court, the relief granted by the Court of Appeal was, in substance, an interlocutory injunction which ought not to have been issued without hearing all parties involved.

The apex court further held that the Court of Appeal exercised jurisdiction over a matter that was not properly before it, reiterating that the filing of a Notice of Appeal alone does not automatically confer jurisdiction on an appellate court.

It also found fault with an ex parte order that stayed proceedings before the trial court, ruling that the order was fundamentally defective.

Consequently, the Supreme Court set aside all the ex parte orders made by the Court of Appeal in relation to the dispute.

The judgment effectively restores the legal position that existed before the appellate court issued the challenged orders.

The dispute forms part of a wider commercial disagreement involving Nestoil and Neconde, reportedly valued at about $1.1 billion.

Legal observers say the ruling reinforces established principles governing appellate jurisdiction and the circumstances under which ex parte orders may be granted.

The court emphasised that substantive reliefs with significant consequences should not ordinarily be granted through ex parte applications, particularly at the appellate level.