The battle between Nestoil Limited and its lenders has escalated sharply, with FBNQuest Merchant Bank and First Trustees Limited filing an urgent motion at the Court of Appeal in Lagos just hours after Nestoil regained possession of its headquarters.

The banks are seeking to freeze the company’s assets once again and suspend Justice Daniel Osiagor’s November 20 ruling that lifted the earlier Mareva injunction.

In a motion on notice filed Friday by lead counsel Babajide Okun SAN, the lenders asked the appellate court to restrain Nestoil, Neconde Energy, and company executives Ernest Azudialu-Obiejesi and Nnenna Obiejesi from taking further steps to implement the reversal order. They also requested that the Federal High Court’s decision be suspended pending the hearing of their appeal, which was lodged the same day.

The banks claim Nestoil and its affiliates owe a consortium of nine lenders a combined $1.012 billion and ₦430 billion as of September 30, 2025, with interest continuing to accrue. In an affidavit, Babatunde Adewolu, an official of FirstBelief, accused Nestoil’s founder of creating “briefcase and shell companies” to conceal and dissipate assets. He warned that without an immediate stay of execution, “monies belonging to innocent depositors… are at risk of being lost,” potentially destabilizing the banking sector.

The lenders further argued that Nestoil and related entities are already under receivership by deed, meaning management is no longer in control.

The latest move follows Justice Osiagor’s decision on Thursday to vacate the controversial ex-parte Mareva order originally granted on October 22, 2025, by Justice Deinde Dipeolu, who later recused himself after a bias petition. That order had frozen accounts across more than 20 banks and authorised police to seal Nestoil Towers.

Despite the vacation order and a formal letter from the Federal High Court to the Lagos Commissioner of Police, armed officers initially refused to vacate the building on Friday, reportedly tear-gassing staff before finally leaving late at night under pressure.

Nestoil has maintained that the debt claims are disputed, that its headquarters belongs to a separate landlord entity, and that the original takeover was unlawful even under the ex-parte order.

The case, now before the Court of Appeal, is one of Nigeria’s largest corporate debt disputes. Analysts warn that its outcome could set far-reaching precedents for how banks enforce debt recovery and how debtor protections are applied in multi-billion-dollar conflicts.