KAM Industry illegally detains engineering firm owner over ‘simple’ business deal, says Nigeria’s Appeal Court

KAM Industry, a steel smelting giant with business tentacles across West Africa, got chewed and spat out by a three man Appeal committee at the Ilorin Division of the Appeal Court, Nigeria, on Friday, after it threw out an appeal instituted by the Kwara State judiciary at the promptings of Profort Steel, a sister company to KAM, against Orafiri Ibiabuo and his sea engineering company, Ibiere Engineering Limited.

Until a trial court in the same city capital Kwara State, north central of the country, discharged and acquitted Ibiabuo, the impression was that KAM Industry was after Ibiabuo over claims that he defrauded him using false pretenses.

But the High Court ruled that the matter under which the engineering firm boss was arrested and arraigned were purely civil matter.

The Appeal Court in its ruling agreed with the trial court that earlier exonerated the defendants after serial charges of criminal breach of contract, obtaining money under false pretenses and sundry charges were brought against them.

In a judgment delivered by the trio of Justices Tunde Oyebanji  Awotoye, Bitrus Gyarazama Sango and Kenneth Ikechukwu Amadi, the court ruled that the High Court in Ilorin presided over by Justice EO Akinpelu was in order dismissing the case.

KAM Wire through its sister company Profort had hired Ibiere Engineering to help it transport an oil rig to Sapele after obtaining it from an auction.

Despite fulfilling part of the agreement but couldn’t conclude the deal on account of a force majure, KAM Wire resorted a high handed tactics of involving the police against set agreement between both parties to resolve conflict via arbitration.

KAM Wire had caused a petition be made against the defendants to wit, Ibabuo was arrested in Warri, brought to Ilorin and was detained by police for two and half years.

Within the period, the defendant’s father died. Was detained in the morgue and could only be buried after the trial court set Ibiere free.

Ruling on the case at the high court, Justice Akinpelu thoroughly upbraided the police over their failure to see the matter as purely a civil matter.

“It is important for the Police who receive complaints to be able to decipher between civil complaints relating to breach of contract and a cases of Advance Fee Fraud, to advise the complainants appropriately on remedies open to them and to decline proceeding with the complaints which have purely a civil flavor.

” Ditto for the prosecution.

“As it is, the frivolity of the complaint culminating in into the instant suit has been eventually revealed without delivery to the nominal complainant any desired outcome in respect of the contract sum in issue, yet the effort which the defendants would have better deployed towards refunding the amount in issue has been kept on hold for the two years that the defendant has been in detention”, the High Court had earlier ruled.

Consequently, the Appeal Court, in throwing out the Appeal instituted by ‘People of Kwara’ against the duo of Ibiabuo and Ibieri, stated that Justice Akinpelu was very much in order.

Reading the judgment on behalf of all three Justices of the Appeal court, Justice Amadi adverted to the signed agreement between both parties at the outset of the business deal.

Both Profort, KAM Wire and Ibieri had agreed in their business agreement among many others that “that Parties shall approach Arbitration for amicable settlement in the event there is a breach of any term herein, and that the principle of force majeure shall prevail during the execution of [the] agreement,” according to documents availed to Daily Independent.

As such, the Appeal Court dismissed the appeals from the appellants.

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