A little step of progress One giant step for Justice

The Representatives of the Subscribers met with the Lagos State Government team and the BAT representatives.

We were initially billed to meet with the Director of Cooperatives. However

• a parallel petition had been received by the Governor of Lagos State,
• The Ministry of Justice had also gotten wind and expressed an interest
• The Ministry of Finance too had expressed an interest

Therefore the Hon Commissioner for Commerce and Industry felt compelled to attend the meeting with the Permanent Secretary, Director of Cooperatives, Registrar of Cooperatives, Legal Director, Compliance Officers and aides.

The Subscribers gave a presentation and delivered an over 170 page binder with documents, agreements, reports, schedules, emails, letters etc.

BAT offered non.

Questions were asked of BAT reps who asked for time to produce documents and answer question, the Subscribers produced the required documents and offered preparedness to answer all questions immediately.

The bizarre nature of the transaction in terms of concept implementation and remediation was highlighted.

Also, BAT Coop entered separate agreements with each Subscriber. Therefore BAT's attempt to argue that those agreements were rescinded at Town Hall Meeting was laughable .

BAT acted as the mind, and the Coop was the agent. BAT could not therefore claim non involvement (privity)

BAT's attempt to give comfort as expressed by Richard WIlliams (BAT UK) that the Coop is in Court against the Developer is a false comfort. This is because the Contract entered into between BAT Coop and the Developer requires disputes to be settled at the Lagos High Court. whereas BAT Coop and BAT (who funded the case) chose to go to the Federal High Court thereby causing a stalemate.

There was no dissenting view whatsoever. 

The meeting closed with the Ministry of Justice asked to review the documents and reverting as soon as possible.