Why a ₦187 Million Claim Collapsed Twice Over: Binez Hotels Limited v. Bureau of Public Enterprises & Anor
Paid for the Shares, Never Got the Paperwork: Why a ₦187 Million Claim Collapsed Twice Over Case: Binez Hotels Limited v. Bureau of Public Enterprises & Anor. [2026] 11 NWLR 209 (SC) Court: Supreme Court of Nigeria Some cases fail on the facts. Others never even get to the facts, because something in the paperwork was wrong from the very beginning. This case managed both — a company chasing ₦187 million over a botched privatization deal lost on a procedural technicality so fundamental it never needed to reach the substance, and then lost on the substance anyway. It's a genuinely useful two-for-one lesson: one on how easily an appeal can collapse before it's even heard, and one on exactly what it takes to actually own shares in Nigeria. A Privatization Deal That Never Quite Closed Back in the early 2000s, Binez Hotels agreed to buy 13 million shares — a 10% stake — that the Federal Government held in Nigercem Plc, a cement company in Ebonyi State, for just over ₦7 million...