Court freezes Dangote brother’s accounts with 20 banks
A Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered 20 commercial banks in Nigeria
to dishonour all withdrawal cheques from Mr. Sani Dangote, younger
brother to Alhaji Aliko Dangote, and his companies, Dansa Foods Limited
and Bulk Pack Services Limited.
Justice Okon Abang, who made the order
on Thursday in a bench ruling, said the order would subsist till
September 11, 2014, when the court would entertain all applications in a
suit brought by Union Bank Plc against Dangote and his companies.
The judge also ordered all the banks
involved to, within five days of the interim order, file affidavits
declaring the defendants statement of accounts with them.
Union Bank had taken Dangote and his
companies to court over alleged refusal to liquidate about N5.2bn loan
granted them since September, 2008.
The bank, through its lawyer, Mr.
Chukwudi Enebeli from the chambers of Mr. Kemi Pinheiro (SAN), had
instituted suits seeking an order of mareva injunction to restrain all
the defendants’ bankers in Nigeria from allowing them withdraw funds
from their accounts pending the determination of the suits.
The banks named include Access, CITI,
Diamond, Ecobank, Enterprise, Fidelity, Keystone, Mainstreet, Skye,
Wema, Heritage, Sterling, Unity and Zenith banks.
Others are First Bank, First City
Monument Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Standard Chartered
Bank and United Bank for Africa.
In the affidavit in support of its
suits, Union Bank Plc urged the court to urgently grant the mareva order
because in a bid to evade payment of the loan, Dangote had been making
frantic efforts to deplete the funds in the accounts of his companies,
and that the bank’s investigations revealed that the defendants had
started diverting the funds to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Canada
and Switzerland.
One Olufunmilola Ayoola, an official of
the bank, who deposed to the bank’s affidavit, alleged that the failure
of the defendants to liquidate the monumental debt had negatively
affected the Nigerian economy, a development which the bank claimed
necessitated the suit.
According to Ayoola, Union Bank Plc has
been having difficulty in extending credit facilities to small scale
businesses, which in turn would have helped in boosting the nation’s
economy and salvage the country from its present malaise of corruption
and underdevelopment crisis.
The bank stated that the funds, which
Dangote and his companies failed to pay, were capable of going a long
way in impacting positively on the nation’s economy.
When the matter came up for hearing on
Thursday, the motion could not be heard as counsel for the defendants
informed the court that they had filed objections challenging
jurisdiction of the court to entertain the suit.
Out of all the banks, Diamond and Zenith
appeared before the court on Thursday and explained that Dangote was
equally indebted to them.
Zenith Bank specifically said Dangote was indebted to the bank to the tune of €7m.
In view of the defendants’ objections
contesting jurisdiction, the judge said the matter would be adjourned
till September 11, 2014, to be able to take all the applications.
The judge added, however, that there was
an urgent need to preserve the res in view of the allegation that the
defendants were about to move the funds abroad.
He said, “In line with Order 28 Rule 2
of the rules of this court, an interim order is hereby made restraining
the banks from allowing the defendants to operate their accounts with
them, especially honouring withdrawal of funds.
“I think the dictate of justice demands
that a preserving order should be made to preserve the res (subject
matter) of this suit.”
Abang, however, ordered Union Bank to
file an undertaking that it would indemnify the defendants in the event
that the freezing order ought not to have been made.
http://www.punchng.com/news/court-freezes-dangote-brothers-accounts-with-20-banks/
Onitsha—Traders
at the Bright Street section of Onitsha Main Market are now counting
their losses, following last Tuesday night fire that gutted goods worth
millions of naira at the market.
The fire, according to a source,
started at about 9.45 pm on the first floor of one of the storey
buildings and destroyed some warehouses which were allegedly stocked
with rice, chemicals and other spiritual materials worth over N50
million.
The source, however, noted that the inferno did not affect other shops located on the ground floor.
One
of the eye-witnesses, Mike Okongwu, said when the fire started at that
odd hour, a vigilante man guarding the area saw smoke coming out from
one of the shops when it became unbearable, he alerted the chairman of
the street traders, Ifeanyi Chukwudum (Ifetex), who immediately
contacted the police for a dispatch of some policemen to the scene.
At
the scene of the incident, fire fighters from Onitsha Main market and
their counterpart from Okpoko Fire Service Station were on ground to
contain the inferno from spreading its tentacles.
The Fire
Officer, Okpoko Fire Service Station, Ogbaru Local Government, Mrs. Mary
Affah, said her men arrived the scene about fifteen minutes later on
receiving a phone call over the fire outbreak, even as she noted that
the cause of the fire incident was yet unknown.
She disclosed that two of her fire officers sustained various degrees of injuries while attempting to put out the fire.
When
contacted, chairman Bright Street Traders Association and Governor’s
Liaison Officer for Onitsha North Local Government, Chief Chukwudum,
emphasized the need for all the shops to have custody of fire
extinguisher.
He, however, commended soldiers, the police and the vigilante operatives for maintaining orderliness through out the night.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/09/n50m-goods-perish-fire-razes-market-onitsha/#sthash.HeY7r0iz.dpufShare this post