Lagos on Thursday ordered 20
commercial banks in Nigeria not to
honour any withdrawal request
from Alhaji Sani Dangote, younger
brother of billionaire business man,
Aliko Dangote and two of his
companies, Dansa Foods Limited
and Bulk Pack Services Limited.
The trial judge, Justice Okon Abang,
directed that the order is to be in force
until September 11, 2014 when all
applications filed in a suit brought by
Union Bank against Sani Dangote
would be heard.
The judge ordered the banks to file
affidavit to show cause on the details of
his accounts with them within five
days.
The banks are Access Bank, CITI Bank,
Diamond Bank, Ecobank, Enterprise
Bank, Fidelity Bank, First Bank, First
City Monument Bank (FCMB), Guaranty
Trust Bank (GTB), Heritage Bank,
Keystone Bank, Mainstreet Bank, Skye
Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Standard Chartered
Bank, Sterling Bank, United Bank for
Africa (UBA), Unity Bank, Wema Bank
and Zenith Bank.
Justice Abang, also ordered Union Bank
to file an undertaken to indemnify the
defendants in the event that the
freezing order ought not to have been
made.
Union Bank had sued Dangote and his
companies over alleged failure to
liquidate about N5 billion debt despite
repeated demands.
The bank, in two separate suits against
Dangote and his companies, had
sought an order of mareva injunction
restraining all commercial banks in
Nigeria from allowing withdrawal of
funds from their accounts pending the
determination of the suits.
When the matter came up for hearing
on Thursday, the motion could not be
heard as the defendants had filed an
objection challenging the jurisdiction of
the court to entertain the suit.
Out of all the banks, Diamond and
Zenith Banks 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 €7 million.
But while stating that he would
entertain all the applications filed in the matter on Spetember 11, Justice Abang said there was an urgent need to preserve the rest in view of the
allegation that the defendants were
about to move the funds abroad.
Union Bank, in the suits, alleged that in
a bid to evade payment of the loan,
Dangote has been making frantic
efforts to deplete the funds in the
accounts of his companies, and that
investigation had revealed that the
defendants had started diverting the
funds to Dubai in United Arab Emirates
(UAE), Canada and Switzerland.
According to two separate affidavits in
support of the suits deposed to by one
Olufunmilola Ayoola, an official of the
bank, it was 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 suits.
According to Ayoola, Union Bank was
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 under
development.
The bank stated that the funds which
the younger Dangote and his
companies failed to pay, were capable
of going a long way in impacting
positively on the nation's economy.
According to the processes, the bank in
September 2008, granted the
defendants N5.2 billion.
The breakdown of the loan was given
as follows; N500 million overdraft, N500 million advert loan, $2.5 million
equipment lease, $2.5 million sales and lease back and $30 million import
finance.
Ayoola recalled that when the
defendants could not fulfill the promise
of paying back the credit facilities from
time to time, the bank approved the
restructuring of the loan, but despite
that development, Dansa Foods was
indebted to the bank to the tune of
N4.003 billion as at November 29,
2012.
The loan was later reduced to N3.477
billion, but that despite repeated
demands, the defendants failed to
liquidate the debt.
Bulk Pack, on the other hand, is said to
be indebted to the bank to the tune of
N745.145 million.
