COURT RULES IN FAVOUR OF KW-IRS, STRIKES OUT ENTIRE CLAIMS OF N567.7MILLION BY MAZARS CONSULTING

The Court of Appeal, Ilorin division, on the 10th of September, 2021 has struck out a case instituted against Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KW-IRS) by Mr. Adeyemi Sanni Sheriff, Mrs. Adedoyin Sanni, and Mr. Bamidele Ogunlowo, trading under the name and style of “Mazars Consulting” in respect of the recovery of a total sum of N569,765,358.43 (Five Hundred and Sixty Nine Million, Seven Hundred and Sixty Five Thousand, Three Hundred and Fifty Eight Naira, Forty Three Kobo) for an alleged commission on a purported service rendered to the KW-IRS as a Tax Audit Monitoring Agent (TAMA).

Convinced by the merit of the case, the Plaintiffs (Mazars Consulting) through her counsel, A. K. Ajibade & Associates instituted the action under the Undefended List procedure.

The Defendant (KW-IRS) promptly joined issues with the Plaintiffs by filing reasonable grounds for defense, all to the fact that the Plaintiffs have not rendered any service that could warrant the payment of such humongous claims being sought against the Defendant.

The Plaintiffs got judgment in their favour against KW-IRS on the 5th November, 2020 at the Kwara State High Court in a ruling delivered by Justice E. B. Mohammed.

Dissastified by the judgment of the Kwara State High Court, the Service filed in an appeal against the judgment of the court before the Court of Appeal, Ilorin Division and at the same time, filed and moved a motion for the stay of execution of the said judgment pending the determination of the appeal.

Deciding on the appeal, the Court of Appeal formulated two issues vis-a-vis disclosure or non-joinder of the proper parties before the Court and the propriety or otherwise of not moving the entire claims of the Plaintiffs from the Undefended List Procedure to the General Cause List by the trial Court.

In the end, the appellate Court in an unanonimous decision struck out the entire claims of the Plaintiffs on the 10th day of September, 2021, as read by the Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeal, Ilorin division, U.I. Ndukwe-Anyanwu, having resolved the entire issues in favour of the KW-IRS.

Signed
Corporate Affairs Department, KW-IRS
22/09/2021