TopBrass Aviation (BRL, Lagos) has filed contempt of court charges against a number of aviation entities and individuals in Nigeria, including the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), and the Director General of the NCAA Usman Mukhar, Sahara Reporters has reported.

Other defendants include Seagold Investment Limited; a pilot with the presidential fleet Baba Mohammed, Aero Contractors (N2, Lagos), and Managing Director of Aero Contractors, Ado Sanusi.

The lawsuit relates to the protracted dispute over two Dash 8-300s, namely 5N-TBB (msn 613) and 5N-TBC (msn 614) related to the contractual disagreements between Seagold Investment and TopBrass. The charter specialist alleges that Seagold reneged on a contract between the parties.

The charter specialist reportedly dry-leased both aircraft from Seagold for a fixed period of 24 months. TopBrass alleged that although it never defaulted on its lease payments, Seagold attempted to repossess the two turboprops.

TopBrass said that already in December 2015 it secured a court order preventing the defendants from tampering with and repossessing the two Q300s pending a substantive ruling in the ongoing case between the airline and Seagold. In July 2018, the court extended the order through September 25, 2018. TopBrass now says that despite this ruling, Seagold repossessed the aircraft and colluded with the FAAN and the NCAA to remove the aircraft from the register.

TopBrass also operates a third unit of the type, 5N-TBA (msn 608).

Aero Contractors is involved in the proceedings probably because TopBrass Aviation feared that the repossessed Q300s would be subsequently transferred to Aero Contractors.