*Seeks jail term for WEMPCO directors
United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc has asked a Lagos High Court to sentence nine persons linked to Western Metal Products Co. (WEMPCO) to prison.
The bank had alleged that the defendanta forced a court-appointed receiver out of the steel company’s Ogun State factory.
The application by UBA is the latest step in the bank’s effort to recover N61.45 billion which it alleged, the industrial conglomerate is owing it.
The committal notice was filed at the Federal High Court and published in The Nation newspaper on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, following the court order permitting service by substituted means via the newspaper.
The bank accuses the respondents of “wilful, deliberate and orchestrated disobedience” of an April 2, 2026 order and asked that the respondents should remain in prison custody until they comply with the coirt order.
Those named in the suit are Lewis Shui Noor Tung, Phillip Shui Che Tung, Alhaji M.A. Ola Yusuf, Tung Lawrence Blake, Alli Aare Hadji Tokunbo, Paul Shui Po Tung, Robert Tung, CL Ip and Taiwo Alli. All are listed at 18 Wempco Road, Ogba, Ikeja.
Alli is the ManagingA-Director of Nigerian Enamelware Co. Plc, which is listed on the Nigerian Exchange and is one of the 17 defendant companies. Robert Tung sits on its board.
On April 2, Justice Akintayo Aluko gave an order for the freezing of N61.45 billion of WEMPCO-linked funds across 27 banks and fintechs.
He also appointed Romeo Ese Michael as the Receiver-Manager over the assets, not already pledged under a 2019 credit agreement.
UBA’s affidavit disclosed that after the bailiffs handed over the Magboro/Ibafo plant to the Receiver-Manager, the respondents allegedly brought in thugs, broke the Receiver-Manager’s locks and threatened his staff with “serious injury.”
It says the respondents illegally kept running the business and diverting its funds.
None of the allegations has been argued in court, and WEMPCO’s response was not immediately available.
*Attempt at out-of-court settlement
On June 22, 2026, WEMPCO’s lawyers at SimmonsCooper Partners, led by Dapo Akinosun, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), asked UBA for an urgent meeting.
They proposed an interim standstill, a joint reconciliation of the accounts and “a structured framework for repayment.”
UBA’s lawyer, Temilolu Adamolekun, also a SAN, in his replied the next day, questioned how the same company “deploying physical violence on ground and resorting to self-help” could ask for dialogue, but agreed to meet.
The two sides, however, eventually met at UBA’s Marina, Lagos, head office on June 26, 2026 and agreed on a joint inspection of the Magboro site scheduled for July 2, 2026.
WEMPCO and its lawyers failed to show up and have since “gone incommunicado,” the affidavit stated.
