How God’s voice changed the direction of what was a difficult case.
In 2015, or thereabouts, my friend, Boniface Ekong, had a brief. Someone had introduced him to a Pilot, who has a private airline, undertaking private charters.
Now, this airline just happened to be in some severe financial distress and was facing major litigations from several quarters that grounded its operations.
Incidentally, one of its aircraft, a Bombardier Dash-8 Q300, had been put under receivership by one of the biggest banks in Nigeria and was at risk of imminent auction in Lanseria, South Africa, where it had been ferried for a C-Check.
The Pilot, as promoter of this company, was at his wit’s end and in dire need of urgent help, having exhausted his options.
After meeting with the client, Boniface Ekong called me and asked if I would be interested in seeing what I could do to save this man’s aircraft from foreclosure and auctioning.
It turned out that for some reason, my friend Boniface Ekong could not at the time handle a brief of such complexity himself. I think it was a matter of time, or the lack of it, and his prior commitments to some other engagements. Don’t get me wrong, I have no doubt that if it were now, he would have easily handled it himself, and commendably so. But his circumstances were quite different in 2015. So he called me.
Yet again, I do not know why he called me, because, to his knowledge, I had never handled such a complex matter before myself. I mean, this was an extremely complex brief, with the issues fluidly transversing aviation, secured credit, receivership and whatnot.
Anyway, we both went to meet the Pilot in GRA Ikeja and had the first meeting. Thereafter, he handed us all the relevant underlying documents.
Scratch that! What he actually handed us was a morass of impenetrable documents. Ceiling high, in fact. With much exertion, it still took me several weeks just to pore through the entire bundle, and come to a basic understanding of the underlying issues.
I could not see my way through, in terms of even a shred of hope for the client. The bank basically had what seemed like an ironclad case, that gave them a firm grip on the aircraft to repossess, both in law and equity, or however you looked at it. It was not only difficult, but it was near impossible to dislodge the bank’s case. I spoke to more experienced friends, including SANs, discussed with colleagues, and sought the counsel of peers. But the one feedback that always came back, upon intense reflection, was: No hope! Alright. So I prayed.
One day, while looking at this file for the umpteenth time with my partner, Louis, we saw what we thought was a glimmer of hope. So off we went to the Federal High Court, Abuja, where we filed an application that had the potential of unravelling the entire transaction, thus saving the aircraft from the auctioneer’s bell, if we succeeded.
Don’t forget, the aircraft is at this time in South Africa, about to be auctioned. So the Pilot contemporaneously engaged the largest law firm in Africa, to institute action in South Africa, at least to temporarily stay the auction, while our own battle raged in Abuja.
I need to mention that the lawyers we had to face in different aspects of this very complex matter are the very best in the industry. They are still alive today. Three SANs in fact, one of which is also a King’s Counsel in England. So yes, it was really a David and Goliath situation.
So this last part of the story is where God came in. Very interesting.
While the case was being fought in Abuja, we got word that we had lost in South Africa. The client, understandably, panicked!
Then a contingent of some persons came to my office one day to discuss if there was a possibility of getting someone to talk to someone to ensure a favourable outcome somewhere. It was not as direct as I have said it, but that is how I understood what the proposition was. I may have been wrong though.
Anyways, I sternly turned to the client and made a statement, that sooner came back to bite me momentarily. I said to him:
“Sir, this case is as important to you as it is to me. I have absolute confidence and faith in God that we will win this case. In fact, I vouch by the Lord Jesus that we will win this case. That is how sure I am”.
As soon as I made this statement, the client stood up and shook my hands. He then said “Okay, as you have assured me by God’s name, then I can sleep easy. I believe you”, and quietly left.
Gentlemen, not long after this meeting, Abuja gave ruling, and we lost.
Ha! I really cannot describe to you the client’s disposition after we lost! It was a terrible and disgraceful loss. I was completely demoralised.
Guess what the client asked me: “So what happened to the God by whom you confidently assured of victory?”
Yes, that question was asked and I simply could not answer.
In those days, I sometimes slept over in the office on account of work. About two weeks after the Ruling, I was still smarting and deeply bruised from the shame of failure, despite staking the name of the Lord. I kept asking God “Why?”
That night, I was sitting alone in my office, about 12 midnight, all alone, extremely broken, contemplating and reassessing the whole situation. Everywhere quiet.
As God bears me witness, and I kid you not, it was as if someone snuck behind me and violently slapped both ears. I really cannot explain this phenomenon. I actually heard a piercing sound, like the reverberation of a gong, straight to the brain, that almost jerked me off my seat!!! As of a recoil from a slap to the ears!!
Then, just then, a word dropped in my heart. One word: “NOVATION!!!”
Prior to that day, I only heard this word from my dear friend, Ikem Isikwenia, during our SCP days, but I had never investigated nor researched it. I really didn’t know what it was.
So I quickly looked the word up in the Black’s Law Dictionary, and then did a perfunctory research on its applicability in Nigeria. But then, how did it apply to anything I had on hand? I honestly did not know the relevance of this word to what was robbing me of sleep.
I then had a very strong urge to look into the case files again, and I did. At this time, remember that this file had been with me for two whole years, and I had read and was completely familiar with every single document in it.
Almost like a joke, I opened that file, containing several hundreds of documents, and immediately came face-to-face with a single document (mind you, a document I had seen and read many times over in the past but found no relevance in it to the case). Having just researched “NOVATION”, it struck me that this single document was the linchpin for turning around our fortune in this case.
The scariest thing about that night was that when I decided to look a bit deeper, I looked up a Law Report called NSCC, for short. Very few people will believe this, but I randomly removed a particular volume of NSCC from the shelf and opened it in the middle, flipped through a few pages and was confronted by a case called Abdulkareem v. Incar. That case, as it turned out, was where the Supreme Court settled the Novation principles and it fit, like a ball-and-socket joint exactly with our circumstances.
I don’t know how to describe my excitement. At this time, it was about 3 am in the morning. I started calling the client. I couldn’t wait till morning. I called, and called and called, till he woke and picked up my call. Captain, could not understand what could possess me to call him by 3 am. I could barely speak. I just kept screaming, “Captain, your plane is coming back!!”, “Captain, your plane is coming back!!”
Anyway, to cut a long story short, we abandoned our appeal in Abuja and filed an entirely new case at the Federal High Court, Lagos, premised entirely on the principle of NOVATION. A new cause of action.
Let me tell you a funny aspect of this new case. When we served the bank, they could not believe their eyes. You see, not a soul had seen or even contemplated the issue we raised in this new case. The bank had never imagined it. I didn’t see or imagine it myself. It never occurred to the client. None of the SANs in the case saw it. It was simply a terrible thunderbolt that hit, or should I say snuck on, everyone, out of nowhere!!!
Everyone was so shocked that the bank immediately contacted me and asked for a settlement. In fact, they stopped the auctioning process in South Africa immediately and approved $200,000 for my client to go to South Africa and bring back the plane to Nigeria.
I kid you not, the day the client flew that plane back to Nigeria, he pinched himself. It was unbelievable.
Anyways, to cut the long story short, after the plane arrived, we still could not settle, and so we fought the case on the merit to Judgment. The judgment was delivered on 11th October 2018 and we won.
The bank was perpetually restrained from going against the aircraft. Again, they appealed and lost.
The client, as of today, has his aircraft back. The bank’s appeal, or attempt to appeal, that was dismissed by the Court of Appeal is reported on the Lawpavilion law report as DIAMOND BANK PLC & ANOR v. TOPBRASS AVIATION LTD (2022) LPELR-59317(CA). Check it out, if you can.
You know, it is in this case that I began to understand that adage where it is said that we only see leaves dancing on the roadside without realising that the rhythm of drumbeats to which they swirl to is from the bushes!
After this case, the client thought me to be very intelligent. But I laughed. I laughed because I know it was not my intelligence. The Judge that decided this case loved me dearly and always made a point of speaking about my “intelligence” to the gallery, because of this case. But I laugh, because I know better. Even the opposing Counsel, the SAN, became like a father to me to this day, because of this case. All because of the drumbeat that the hand of the Almighty played for me from the bushes.
In fact, one day, the client called me to his house in Ikeja, and handed me the keys to a brand new car as a gift for what he thinks we did for him on this case. It was a very lovely, delectable car. Exquisite, in fact. I thank him. But still, I laugh, because I know better.
I alone know that I was but that leaf on the roadside. I know that the men who admired the forensic and rhythmic swirling that won us the case in the courtroom could not hear the drumbeats by the hands of the Almighty God to which I responded to. And there was really a drumbeat without which the case was lost.
In the end, despite what we saw as the initial setback, the Lord eventually acquitted Himself and exalted His name.
Remember: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, AND HE SHALL DIRECT YOUR PATH!”
I saw this Scripture play out before my very eyes in this case, and I, therefore, insist that there is indeed a God who rules in the affairs of men!!
Mind, I do not mean to say that prosperity or excellence comes only from God. No. Remember that Moses threw his staff down and it became a serpent, but so did the magicians of Egypt. But when the contest is on, as sure as the rising of the sun, the Lord will prevail. It is He alone who gives freely and prospers, without adding sorrow.
