Facts:

Mufutau Ajayi (Appellant) is a Chartered Accountant, a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and was a former employee of African Petroleum Plc (the company) till he retired from service in April 2000, wherein he served as the company’s Finance and Accounts Manager. Sometime in the year 2000, the National Council on Privatization offered for sale on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria 86,400,000 ordinary shares of African Petroleum Plc while the Appellant was still in active service of the said Company. A year later, a core investor of the company alleged in a press conference that the past management of the company had failed to disclose debts of ₦22.5 billion owed by the company to various creditors. It also alleged that the auditors of the company were negligent in the auditing of the company. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) upon this information, set up a Committee to investigate the allegation, and the findings of the Committee affirmed that the sum of ₦10, 181,606 billion disclosed in the prospectus of the company was less than what the company owed. The Administrative Proceedings Committee (Committee) of the SEC found that the Appellant, being an officer of the company authorized the issue of the prospectus which contained an untrue statement that the total indebtedness of the company was ₦10.2 billion whereas subsequent revelations indicated otherwise, thereby contravening the provisions of sections 62 (1), (2) (d) and 63 of the Investment and Securities Act (ISA) 1999. Pursuant to the findings of the Committee, the Committee directed that: i) the Appellant be strongly reprimanded for his role in the debt concealment; ii) he is therefore disqualified from being employed or participating, in any capacity, in the securities industry; iii) he is to be referred to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for further criminal investigation and action; iv) ICAN and all professional bodies to which the Appellant belongs shall be informed of his actions and this decision. Upon being notified of the decision of the SEC, the Appellant approached the Federal High Court (trial court) for judicial review of the decision. The SEC raised an objection to the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court to hear and determine the case. The trial court upheld the objection and held that the proper venue for the Appellant to take the matter to was the Investments and Securities Tribunal (IST) and not the Federal High Court.
Dissatisfied with the decision of the trial court, the Appellant appealed to the Court of Appeal (lower court), which affirmed the ruling of the trial court.
Further dissatisfied by the decision of the lower court, the Appellant appealed to the Supreme Court.