Parallex Bank Seeks Dismissal Of N7.15bn Suit, Alleges Abuse Of Court Process

Parallex Bank Limited has urged a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Abuja to dismiss a ?7.15 billion suit filed against it by logistics firm, FHT Mega Express Limited, alleging abuse of court process, forum shopping, and suppression of material facts.
The bank made the request in a notice of preliminary objection, also seeking to set aside an interim ex parte order that resulted in the freezing of its funds. The suit, which also names the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) as defendants, led to an order directing the regulators to freeze ?7,154,677,000 standing to the credit of Parallex Bank.
Justice Hauwa Gummi of the FCT High Court, sitting in Asokoro, Abuja, had on December 18, 2025, ordered the CBN and NDIC to withhold the funds in an interest-yielding account pending the hearing and determination of a motion on notice.
Origin of the Dispute
Court documents show that the dispute arose from a banking relationship between FHT Mega Express and Parallex Bank concerning funds deposited as cash collateral for the issuance of letters of credit (LC).
FHT Mega Express told the court that it deposited ?7.15 billion with Parallex Bank to secure letters of credit valued at approximately $7.31 million to finance import transactions. The company alleged that the bank, after issuing an indicative offer of banking facilities in June 2023, failed to issue the LC as agreed and delayed sourcing foreign exchange during a volatile FX period.
The logistics firm further claimed that upon the arrival of the imported goods in Nigeria, the bank demanded additional funds to cover foreign exchange differentials and refused to release the bill of lading. As a result, the goods were allegedly abandoned and later auctioned by the Nigeria Customs Service.
FHT Mega Express said repeated demands for either execution of the transaction or a refund of its funds yielded no result, prompting it to seek interim court orders to preserve the funds.
Prior Litigation
Parallex Bank, however, told the court that the Abuja suit is not the first legal action arising from the dispute.
According to the bank, it had earlier filed a suit on September 4, 2025, at the Federal High Court in Lagos (Suit No: FHC/L/CS/1774/2025), seeking to recover an alleged ?4.5 billion indebtedness owed by FHT Mega Express from several letters of credit issued to finance import transactions denominated in multiple million euros.
On October 14, 2025, Justice Lewis Allagoa of the Federal High Court, Lagos, ordered all parties to maintain the status quo pending the determination of the substantive suit.
Parallex Bank further alleged that FHT Mega Express subsequently filed a similar suit at the Lagos State High Court seeking ex parte orders to freeze the bank’s funds, but the court declined the request and directed that the bank be put on notice. The logistics firm later discontinued that suit.
Allegations of Suppression and Forum Shopping
The bank told the Abuja court that FHT Mega Express later filed the present suit in the FCT, raising substantially the same issues and seeking similar interim reliefs without disclosing the existence of the Federal High Court case, the subsisting status quo order, or the failed Lagos State High Court action.
Parallex Bank argued that the non-disclosure amounted to suppression of material facts and misled the court into granting interim reliefs that ought not to have been made.
The bank further contended that the subject matter of the dispute—letters of credit and obligations arising from them—falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, making the FCT High Court suit incompetent.
Affidavit Evidence
In an affidavit sworn to by Cynthia Akunaeziri, a manager at Parallex Bank, the bank detailed the LC facilities involved and stated that the Lagos Federal High Court suit seeks both recovery of the alleged debt and enforcement of its banker’s lien over goods financed through the letters of credit.
The bank also disclosed that the Lagos State High Court, after striking out the suit filed there, ordered FHT Mega Express to undertake corrective publications over alleged damaging information circulated against Parallex Bank.
Justice Gummi adjourned the matter to February 4 for the hearing of Parallex Bank’s preliminary objection.