Lagos, Nigeria – The Federal High Court in Lagos has set aside the Central Bank of Nigeria’s January 2024 decision to sack the board and management of Union Bank of Nigeria, ordering that the lender’s former leadership and core shareholders be restored.
Okay News reports that Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke gave the ruling on Wednesday in a suit filed by core investors Titan Trust, Luxis International and Magna International, who challenged the Central Bank of Nigeria’s move to dissolve the board and install a new one as unlawful.
In his judgment, the judge held that the apex bank acted beyond its powers when it removed Union Bank’s directors and management, quashed all decisions and steps taken by the Central Bank of Nigeria appointed board and barred the regulator, its interim directors and their agents from pursuing recapitalisation or related actions for the bank.
The case traces back to January 2024, when the Central Bank of Nigeria dissolved the boards of Union Bank, Keystone Bank and Polaris Bank, citing alleged breaches of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act, corporate governance failures, disregard for licence conditions and activities said to threaten financial stability.
Following that action, the Central Bank of Nigeria named Yetunde Oni as managing director and chief executive officer of Union Bank and Mannir Ubali Ringim as executive director, but Titan Trust, Luxis International and Magna International later approached the court by ex parte motion seeking a judicial review of the intervention and plans for what they called an unlawful recapitalisation.
They asked the court to declare that replacing Union Bank’s existing directors and moving ahead with recapitalisation under an interim board was done without due process and to stop the Central Bank of Nigeria, the bank and the new directors from taking further steps pending a full hearing, which led to an interim order on December 5, 2025 before the final ruling now delivered.
Defendants in the suit included the Central Bank Governor, the Central Bank of Nigeria itself, members of the replacement board and Union Bank, and the judgment is expected to have implications for how far regulators can go in removing bank boards without court oversight as Nigeria continues its wider banking recapitalisation drive.
