N47m Debt: Court Stops S’African Retail Store, Shoprite, From Exiting Nigeria

South African retail selling store, Shoprite, may not leave Nigeria after all following a court case involving it, which bothers on a whopping forty-seven million Naira (N47 million in debt. 

Thus, a Lagos Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, stopped the proposed move by the promoters of the outlets, Shoprite Checker (PYT), to quit the country or have its assets, both movable and immovable, dissipated over alleged N47 million naira debt.

The presiding judge, Justice Muhammed Liman’s ex-parte order on Shoprite Checker’s promoters is the sequel to the request by a limited liability company, A.I.C. Limited, in a suit, marked FHC/L/CS/881/2020, against the largest retailing store and three others.

Others listed in the ex-parte application alongside Shoprite Checker (PTY) Limited over alleged debt are Retail Supermarket Nigeria Limited, the Registrar of Trademarks and National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), listed as second to fourth respondents in the suit.

A.I.C. Limited, through its lawyer, Professor Taiwo Oshinpitan had approached Justice Liman’s court through an ex-parte application for an order of Mareva Injunction restraining Shoprite Checker (PTY), described as a Judgment Debtor, its privies, officers, nominees, successors-in-title, subsidiaries or anyone acting through it or by it from transferring, assigning, charging, disposing of its trademark, franchise and intellectual-property in a manner that will alter, dissipate, or remove these non-cash assets from the court’s jurisdiction.

The applicant, which described itself as a judgement creditor, also asked the court for an order of Mareva Injunction restraining Shoprite Checkers (PYT) its privies, officers, nominees, successors-in-title, subsidiaries or anyone acting through it or by it from transferring, assigning, charging, disposing of its other assets including but not limited to trade receivables, trade payables, payment for the purchase of merchandise within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court.

It also asked the court for an order of Mareva Injunction restraining Shoprite Checker, its privies, officers, nominees, successors-in-title, subsidiaries or anyone acting through it or by it from transferring, assigning, charging, disposing of its other assets including but not limited to trade receivables, trade payables, payment for the purchase of merchandise within the jurisdiction of the Court.

The applicant also requested for an order restraining Retail Supermarket Nigeria Limited from making any financial payments whether by itself, privies. officers, nominees, successors-in-title, subsidiaries or anyone acting through it or by it to Shoprite Checker under the Administration and Technical Services Agreement between the Shoprite and it, in order not to render the Judgment of the Court of Appeal in Suit No: CA/L/288/2018 nugatory or the anticipated judgment from the Supreme Court in the appeal filed by it.

It further asked for an order of the court compelling and mandating the Retail Supermarket Nigeria Limited to disclose its Audited Financial Statements for the years ending 2018 and 2019 to enable it to determine the number of the Shoprite Checker’s funds in its custody to preserve same in satisfaction of the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Appeal No: CA/L/288/2018, among pleas.

Justice Liman, after listening to the submissions of Professor Oshinpintan on the ex-parte application and affidavit in support, deposed to by one Joshua Oluwagbemiga Akinyemi, granted to all the reliefs sought by A.I.C. Limited against Shoprite Checker (PYT) Limited and other respondents.