The former captain of the Super Eagles, Kanu Nwankwo, and his hotel, Hardley Apartment, located in Lagos, have been fined N30,000 by a Nigerian court.
Kanu and his hotel, Hardley Apartment, were ordered to pay the cash by Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of the Federal High Court in Lagos on Friday.
They were penalized for delaying the hearing of a debt collection complaint filed against them by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, or AMCON.
Recall that AMCON had taken the former Arsenal star, his hotel, and its director, Ayoola Gam-Ikon, to court over an alleged debt of N924.7 million.
Kanu and Hardley Apartment’s lawyer, T. A. Idelegbagbon, told the court on Friday that she is withdrawing all motions made in response to the lawsuit in 2017.
However, AMCON’s lawyer, Jayes Ujah, opposed the request and requested that the respondents be fined for submitting frivolous petitions.
He stated that he had already filed his response to the withdrawn processes.
Ujah further requested that the court dismiss all new processes brought by Kanu and the Hardley Apartment team because they contained previously admitted facts.
After hearing both parties’ arguments, the judge granted the respondents’ request to withdraw the petitions and imposed a fine of N30,000 on them for stalling further proceedings in the case.
According to Justice Aneke, Kanu and Hardley Apartment will pay the money before the matter resumes for hearing on January 20, 2022.
In previous cases, AMCON had sued Hardley Apartment, its directors, Gam-Ikon, and Kanu in 2015 so as to recover an alleged debt owing to a bank.
AMCON alleged in an affidavit in support of the suit sworn to by a Credit Officer, Victor Igabor, that the bank offered Hardley Apartments a loan of N520,457,000 between May 2008 and January 2011.
