By - Osun State Government files an application to set aside the Federal High Court order freezing its bank accounts, alleging the order was procured through deceit and non-disclosure of material facts
- State says it had already filed a separate suit at the Lagos State High Court on September 1 to challenge the underlying arbitration award, and that Gamji Nigeria Company Limited knew this before approaching the Federal High Court anyway
- Government traces the dispute back to a 2017 contract disagreement under the Oyetola administration, and says the arbitration process itself was “deliberately mismanaged” in Gamji’s favour
The Osun State Government has pushed back formally against the Federal High Court order that froze its bank accounts over a $13.9 million arbitration award, filing an application to vacate the order and accusing the contractor behind it, Gamji Nigeria Company Limited, of concealing a competing legal challenge already underway in Lagos.
In a statement issued Sunday and signed by Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Oluomo Kolapo Alimi, the state government said its application targets the ex-parte order it describes as dated September 9, arguing the order does not accord with public policy and was obtained through what it called deceit and substantial non-disclosure of material facts. That application was filed before the Federal High Court on October 2.
A Dispute the State Says Predates the Current Administration
According to the statement, the underlying contract disagreement traces back to 2017, when the Oyetola administration denied a variation request from Gamji over whether the state owed the company $15,982,638.22. The state government said the matter proceeded to arbitration, which it alleges was “deliberately mismanaged and handled to favour” Gamji, denying the state fair hearing and full participation in the process.
The government also raised a pointed factual objection to the award itself, stating that the arbitral award referenced in the Federal High Court’s ex-parte order does not actually exist, since no arbitral award was made against the state in July 2024. The only arbitral award the state acknowledges was issued in July 2026, and that award, according to the statement, is the one currently being challenged before the Lagos State High Court.
The Core of the State’s Deceit Allegation
The statement’s central claim is procedural rather than purely financial. The government says its legal team filed a suit at the Lagos State High Court on September 1, 2026, specifically to set aside the arbitral award, alongside a motion on notice seeking to suspend execution of the award until that suit was heard and determined. Both filings, the state says, were duly served on Gamji and its counsel, meaning the company was fully aware the award’s validity was already in dispute before a court of competent jurisdiction.
Despite that, the government alleges, Gamji proceeded to approach the Federal High Court in Lagos to enforce the same award, without disclosing to that court either the pending Lagos State High Court challenge or the fact that it had been served with an application to suspend enforcement. The state government characterises this sequence as the deceptive basis for the September 9 ex-parte order now under challenge.
What’s Still Unclear
AfrikTimes’ earlier report on this matter, drawn from a certified court filing obtained by a national newspaper, described the freezing order as issued by Justice D.E. Osiagor adjourned to October 22, 2026, for a hearing on the substantive motion on notice, details that don’t fully align with the September 9 date and ex-parte order framing in Sunday’s government statement. AfrikTimes has not independently reconciled these two accounts, and this report presents the state government’s version as its own assertion, not as independently verified fact. Given the case remains before the courts, both the timeline and the competing claims about the award’s validity are best treated as contested until a judge rules on the matter.
The government’s statement was careful to stop short of arguing the merits of the underlying case directly, citing the matter’s sub judice status, but closed by assuring the public that legal action is ongoing to vacate the freezing order and secure what it called the state’s due right to judicial review of the arbitration award.
What Happens Next
With competing suits now active in both the Federal High Court in Lagos and the Lagos State High Court, over what the state says is the same underlying award, the dispute appears headed toward a jurisdictional question as much as a financial one: which court’s proceedings take precedence, and whether Gamji’s conduct in approaching the Federal High Court, as alleged by the state, amounts to the kind of non-disclosure that typically unravels an ex-parte order once challenged.
