Court sentences Fidelity Bank MD to prison for contempt
A Lagos Chief Magistrates Court sitting in Ogba, Ikeja, on Monday sentenced the Managing Director of Fidelity Bank Plc, Mrs Nneka Ikpe, to six weeks imprisonment for contempt.
The court also sentenced Mr Ezinwa Unuigboje, the bank’s Secretary to a similar jail term.
Delivering judgment, the Magistrate, Lateef Owolabi, convicted the duo for disobedience of a garnishee order restraining the bank from allowing a judgment debtor access to his account.
Periscope International recalls that the court had issued a garnishee order on December 6, 2022 directing 16 banks not to allow a judgment debtor, Prince Enabulele Ozaze access to his bank accounts pending the payment of a N2.8 million judgment debt in a suit involving the sale of a Toyota Corolla car.
Owolabi had earlier in a judgment in the main suit delivered on October 13, 2022, granted judgment in favour of the plaintiff, Jibrin Ahmed.
Ahmed had sued the defendants over the payment of N2.8 million he made to the defendant for the purchase of a Toyota Corolla car.
Owolabi had held that the claim before the court was a summons used in action for debt or liquidated money demand with or without interest.
According to him, a liquidated demand is a matter of arithmetic precision without further investigation.
“I have examined the whole process filed by the claimant and therefore 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.
“Judgment is therefore entered against the defendant in the sum of N2.8 million which is due to the claimant over the transaction which took place in July 2022,” he added.
In order to reap the fruit of the judgment, the claimant’s lawyer, Alayo Akanbi, had filed a garnishe proceeding before the court seeking to attach 17 banks, and prayed the court to stop the banks from allowing the defendant to draw money from the accounts with them pending the liquidation of the debt.
On January 25, 2023, however, the claimant, now judgment creditor, deposed to an affidavit before the court where he showed that the garnishee order had been flouted by Fidelity Bank.
He showed instances of how the judgment debtor had been withdrawing funds from the account to the extent of depleting the funds in his account with Fidelity bank.
He claimed that the judgment debtor had N3, 165, 759.05k in his account with Fidelity bank as of January 12, 2023 when the garnishe order was served on the bank.
By January 15, 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.
On January 17, the legal officer of the bank Obianuju Nwosu confirmed service on the bank as of December 22, 2022 and further apologized for the transactions on the account.
On January 18, 2023, the court ordered 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 Monday’s proceedings, the Managing Director and Company Secretary were not in court as ordered.
The lawyer to the judgment creditor told the court how the two had disobeyed the garnishee order of the court.
Enraged by the the duo’s absence, the Magistrate sentenced them to six weeks imprisonment each and ordered the Lagos State Commissioner of Police and any officer under his command to arrest and bring them to court for onward transfer to prison.
