LAGOS — Justice Daniel Osiagor of the Federal High Court in Lagos has upheld United Bank for Africa's appointment of Romeo Ese as receiver-manager in its N156 billion debt recovery suit against Stallion Group and related companies. The suit, filed in October 2023, also names the Vaswani brothers, Von Automobile Nigeria, Stallion Motors, The Honda Place and director Sunil Vaswani. The court found that the defendants did not dispute owing money, only the amount, and that a reconciliation exercise did not cancel the debt. It confirmed the bank's mortgage security and the liability of the guarantors, dismissed an objection by Barbedos Ventures Ltd, and barred the diversion of money owed to the companies by government agencies. UBA took control of assets in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano in 2023 under earlier orders. Stallion Group, which has previously called the claim false, has filed a notice of appeal and asked for a stay of execution.