By Ayo Kehinde
Fresh controversy has trailed First Bank of Nigeria’s (FBN) bid to take over the assets of General Hydrocarbons Limited (GHL), following revelations that the Sole Arbitrator, who dismissed GHL’s $718 million claim, is allegedly a significant shareholder in the bank’s parent company.
GHL, owned by media mogul, Nduka Obaigbena, is the operator of the Oil Mining Licence (OML) 120. The company has been locked in a legal and financial battle with First Bank since January, after a court reportedly ordered the freezing of its accounts over an alleged $225 million debt owed to the bank.
While the matter continues in court, both parties have also been engaged in arbitration in a bid to resolve the high-stakes commercial dispute.
Justice Kumai Bayang Akaahs, who retired from the Supreme Court in 2019, was appointed Sole Arbitrator in February 2025 to oversee the case. He presided over the proceedings for eight months before delivering his final award on October 28, 2025, dismissing all claims by GHL on the grounds that the company failed to prove breach of contract by First Bank.
However, a group calling itself the Stock Market Whistleblowers—made up of stockbrokers licenced by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)—has alleged that Justice Akaahs is a substantial shareholder in FBN Holdings Plc (First HoldCo), the parent company of First Bank. The group claims that he owns 595,057 units of shares in the institution, raising serious concerns about potential conflict of interest.
The whistleblowers said they were acting “to aid the fight against corruption and misconduct in the Nigerian capital market” and to promote transparency in financial and judicial processes. They stressed that the arbitrator’s alleged shareholding should have disqualified him from presiding over a dispute involving one of the bank’s subsidiaries. We are Whistleblowers.
“We, Stockbrokers licenced by the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the Federal Ministry of Finance, are making these statements under the Whistleblower Policy of the Federal Ministry of Finance, the various legislations under the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) Act, and other legislations in Nigeria which protect the identity of Whistleblowers from reprisals in order to freely share information to aid the fight against corruption and misconduct in the Stock Exchanges of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and ensure market integrity.
“With the above preamble, we make the following statements to be released to the Nigerian Media in order to ensure openness, transparency and full investigations”, they said.
The Whistleblowers argued that, at the very least, Justice Akaahs was legally and ethically obligated to disclose his interest to the parties before accepting the appointment.
“We were very bemused to learn that Justice Akaahs was the Sole Arbitrator of the GHL vs First Bank arbitration. How could that be? Little wonder he dismissed all the claims of GHL against FBN”, the group queried.
The whistleblowers further alleged that the retired jurist not only held shares prior to the arbitration but also made fresh purchases during the proceedings. According to them, he bought 148,888 additional units of First HoldCo shares on April 7, 2025, raising his total stake to more than half a million units while the arbitration was ongoing.
They supplied what they described as “preliminary evidence”, including tables detailing all known shares allegedly held by Justice Akaahs, a breakdown of his First HoldCo portfolio, and dates of recent transactions.
“As stockbrokers, we are privy to the transactions of Justice Kumai Bayang Akaahs (JSC, rtd), especially as it relates to his shares in First HoldCo PLC,” they said.
The group also listed the arbitrator’s alleged shareholdings across several blue-chip companies, such as MTN Nigeria, UBA, GTCO, Zenith Bank, Lafarge Africa, Ecobank Transnational, Daar Communications and Dunlop Nigeria. But they emphasised that his First HoldCo holdings—said to be the largest in his portfolio—posed a direct and substantial conflict in a case involving First Bank.
According to the whistleblowers, their intervention is driven by a desire to safeguard the integrity of Nigeria’s arbitration and capital-market systems.
“We are people of conscience seeking justice and integrity. We will provide more information to the media and the courts in the advancement of truth and justice”, they declared.
The Stock Market Whistleblowers have urged journalists, civil society organisations and regulatory agencies to conduct independent investigations into what they describe as a “serious ethical breach.” They implied that their revelations mark only the beginning of what could evolve into a wider controversy within Nigeria’s financial and judicial systems.
Legal experts note that Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act (ACA) empowers a court to set aside an arbitral award where there is evidence of bias, corruption, breach of due process or conduct considered contrary to public policy. Failure by an arbitrator to disclose a material interest, they say, could amount to a denial of the right to a fair hearing.
As of press time, neither Justice Akaahs nor First Bank had issued an official response to the allegations.
