By TAIYE AGBAJE

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed an appeal seeking the dissolution of the merger between the Providus Bank Limited and Unity Bank Plc.

A five-member panel of the apex court, in a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Tijani Abubakar, dismissed the appeal seeking to upturn the judgement of the Court of Appeal, for lacking in merit.

The appellants; Suleiman Abubakar and Mohammed Goni Modu, who are customers and shareholders of the banks had appealed against the appellate court judgement.

They named Providus Bank, Unity Bank, PAC Capital Limited, Vetiva Advisory Services Limited, Lighthouse Capital Limited, Planet Capital Limited, the Corporate Affairs Commission as 1st to 7th respondents.

They also listed the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Central Bank of Nigeria as 8th to 10 respondents respectively in the appeal marked: SC/CV/132/2026.

The Supreme Court after dismissing the case of the appellants subsequently invoked its powers under Section 22 of the Supreme Court Act to directly sanction the merger between Providus Bank Limited and Unity Bank Plc.

The decision had accordingly brought respite to customers and shareholders of the banks as the judgement effectively draw the curtain over litigation surrounding the merger.

NAN reports that as part of efforts at complying with the recapitalisation policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Providus and Unity Banks had, in July 2025, approached the Federal High Court.

The two banks sought an order to convene separate meetings of their respective shareholders and directors for the purpose of considering and approving a scheme of merger between the duo.

Following the order of the court, Providus and Unity Banks held separate meetings and approved the scheme of merger.

The meeting also led to the sanctioning of the scheme by the trial court.

Dissatisfied, the two appellants despite not being parties to the scheme of merger, approached the trial court seeking leave to bring an application as interested parties and for an order dissolving the merger of the two banks.

After granting leave for the appellants to be joined as interested party, the trial court then ordered that the appellants’ application would be determined first before the motion of the respondents.

Dissatisfied, the appellants (Abubakar and Modu), who are customers and shareholders of the affected banks, approached the Court of Appeal to challenge the decision of the trial court.

But the appellate court, however, dismissed their case on March 6, and ordered accelerated hearing and determination of the suit before the trial court with a costs against the appellants.

Not satisfied, the appellants again approached the apex court to upturn the order of the lower court.

However, the Supreme Court in a unanimous judgment , held that the appeal was unmeritorious and accordingly dismissed with a cost of N10 million each in favour of the respondents, who were 10 in number.

The judgment was delivered in Appeal No. SC/CV/132/2026, arising from Appeal No. CA/LAG/CV/137/2025 and Suit No. FHC/L/MISC/734/2025.

Subsequently, the panel invoked Section 22 of the Supreme Court Act to directly sanction the merger between Providus Bank Limited and Unity Bank Plc, effectively bringing closure to all litigation surrounding the merger.

The apex court further made an order transferring all assets, liabilities and undertakings, including real properties of Unity Bank Plc to Providus Bank Limited, in accordance with the approved scheme of merger.

Justice Abubakar in addition ordered that the transfer be completed within 10 days of the sanction of the scheme.

As part of the merger arrangements, the apex court approved a consideration of N3.18 per share or 18 Providus Bank shares of 50 kobo each for every 17 Unity Bank shares held by shareholders.

The court also ordered the dissolution of the board of Unity Bank Plc without winding up the institution and approved the adoption of the new name, Providus-Unity Bank Limited, for the enlarged entity.

Reacting to the apex court verdict, counsel to Unity Bank Plc, Chief Damian Dodo, SAN, alongside Reuben Atabo, SAN, described the ruling as a historic decision that had finally settled all disputes relating to the merger.

According to Dodo, the Supreme Court’s intervention had removed every legal obstacle standing in the way of the consolidation.

“What the Supreme Court has done by this judgement is to bring closure to the merger between Providus Bank and Unity Bank.

“Some persons went to the Federal High Court and attempted to truncate the merger, and the matter progressed through the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court.

“Today, that chapter has been conclusively closed,” he said.(NAN)

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