A Lagos Chief Magistrates' Court at Ogba yesterday sentenced the Managing Director of Fidelity Bank, Nneka Chinwe Onyeali-Ikpe to six...
A Lagos Chief Magistrates' Court at Ogba yesterday sentenced the Managing Director of Fidelity Bank, Nneka Chinwe Onyeali-Ikpe to six weeks imprisonment over disobedience of a garnishee order of the court.
Chief Magistrate Lateef Owolabi had restrained the bank from allowing a judgment debtor access to his account.
Chief Magistrate Owolabi sentenced the bank’s boss following a garnishee order he gave on December 6, 2022 ordering 16 banks not to allow a judgment debtor, Prince Enabulele Ozaze access to his bank accounts pending the payment of N2.8 million judgment debt in a suit involving the sale of a Toyota Corolla car.
Chief Magistrate Owolabi in an earlier judgment in the substantive suit delivered on October 13, 2022 in favour of the plaintiff, Jibrin Ahmed, who sued the defendant over the payment of N2.8 million made to the defendant for the purchase of a Toyota Corolla car.
The trial Magistrate in the judgment said that the claim before the court is summons used in action for debt or liquidated money demand with or without interest.
The liquidated demand, according to him, is one ascertainable as a matter of arithmetic precision without further investigation.
He then said: “I have examined the whole process filed by the claimant and hold that the claimant is entitled to judgment not necessarily because the defendant is absent, but because the claimant has made a case worthy of being entitled to judgment. The totalities of evidence presented are relevant and reliable”.
The magistrate thereafter entered judgment against the defendant in the sum of N2.8 million as due to the claimant over the transaction that took place in July 2022.
In order to reap the fruit of the judgment, the claimant’s lawyer, Alayo Akanbi filed a garnishe proceeding before the court and attached 17 banks, and asked the court to stop the banks from allowing the defendant to draw money from his accounts with them pending the liquidation of the debt.
The garnishe order was granted on December 6, 2022.
However, on January 25, 2023, the claimant, now judgment creditor, deposed to an affidavit where he showed that the garnishe order have been flouted by Fidelity bank.
The claimant’s counsel showed instances of how the judgment debtor had been withdrawing funds from his account to the extent that he had depleted the funds in his account with Fidelity bank.
According to him, the judgment debtor had N3, 165, 759.05k in his account with Fidelity bank as at January 12, 2023 when the garnishe order was served on the bank but three days after service the judgment debtor had withdrawn N725,547.80k from the account.
The following day, January 16, 2023, another N251,305.90 was transferred out of the bank.
During resumed proceedings, the legal officer of the bank Obianuju Nwosu on January 17, 2023 confirmed service on the bank as at December 22, 2022 and further apologized for the transactions on the account.
On January 18, 2023, the court ordered that ordered that the Managing Director, and Company Secretary to appear in person before the court to explain why they should not be committed to prison for allowing the judgment debtor to dissipate the funds in his account after the service of the garnishe order nisi.
During resumed proceedings yesterday, the Managing Director and Company Secretary were not in court as ordered by the court.
Counsel to the judgment creditor informed the court how the Managing Director and Company Secretary had disobeyed the garnishe order.
Ruling on the matter, Magistrate Owolabi sentenced the Managing Director and Company Secretary to six weeks imprisonment each.
He further ordered Lagos State Commissioner of Police and any officer under his command to arrest them and bring them to court for onward transfer to the custody of appropriate correctional center in Lagos.
No comments