While a lawsuit between GTBank and Afex Commodity Exchange about a N17 billion loan under the Anchor Borrowers Program remains outstanding, Guaranty Trust Bank has brought no less than sixty senior officials of thirteen commercial banks before the court.
The 60 executives, which include the chairmen, CEOs, directors, and company secretaries of the 13 banks, are being held in contempt for allegedly neglecting to carry out a No-Debit-Order that was purportedly placed on the Afex Commodity Exchange’s bank accounts.
The Federal High Court, Lagos division, presided over by Justice CJ Aneke, signed an order in suit no. FHC/L/CS/911/2024 involving Guaranty Trust Bank Limited and AFEX Commodities Exchange Limited, mandating that the bank chairman, MDs, directors, company secretaries, and liquidator of Heritage Bank (Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation) be committed to jail for disobeying the court’s May 27, 2024 ruling.
A court ruling headed “Order to serve notice of disobedience to order of court via newspaper publication” was partially read on Thursday and appeared in a few major newspapers, including The PUNCH.
It read “An order granting leave to the Plaintiff Applicant to serve Form 48 (Notice of Consequences of Disobedience to Order of Court) dated 11th June, 2024 and all other forms and processes that may be issued in this contempt proceedings inclusive of Form 49 on the 1st-60st parties cited for contempt”.
The matter was postponed until next Thursday.
The following banks and their principal officers have been cited for contempt: Access Bank, Citibank, Jaiz Bank, Union Bank, Fidelity Bank, First Bank of Nigeria Plc, First City Monument Bank, NDIC (heritage bank liquidator), Polaris Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Taj Bank, United Bank for Africa, and Zenith Bank.
Twenty banks were instructed to send funds to the respondent’s credit into AFEX’s GTB account until the N17.81 billion is paid back in the court order dated May 27, 2024.
