Chairman of Innoson Nigeria Limited, Mr. Innocent Chukwuma is set to take over ownership and running of one of Nigeria’s elite commercial banks, Guaranty Trust Bank, GTB.
This is sequel to a writ of Fifa which the automobile manufacturing company obtained on Friday.
Recall that Innoson Nigeria Limited and GTB have been involved in a long drawn out legal tussle over a business deal that went awry with claims and counter claims of wrong doing from both parties.
According to the spokesman of the company, Cornel Osigwe in a statement issued on Friday, the order was granted by a Federal High Court in Awka, Anambra State.
A Writ of Fieri Facias (or Writ of Fi Fa) is a document issued by the court for the purpose of effecting court judgment on a debtor’s property. It is also the legal instrument by which the assets of a judgment debtor may be seized.
The statement read in part: “The Chairman of Innoson Group, Chief Dr. Innocent Chukwuma, OFR has through a Writ of FiFa taken over Guaranty Trust Bank PLC for and on behalf of Innoson Nigeria Ltd as a result of the bank’s indebtedness to Innoson Nigeria Ltd.
“In a landmark decision on February 27th 2019, the Supreme Court of Nigeria dismissed GTB’s appeal — SC. 694/2014 — against the judgment of Court of Appeal, Ibadan Division.
“The Court of Appeal, Ibadan division had in its decision of 6th February 2014 dismissed GTB’s appeal against the Federal High Court, Ibadan Division.
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“Thus, the Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment of the Federal High Court, Ibadan Division which ordered GTB by way of Garnishee order absolute — to pay N2.4billion to Innoson with a 22% interest, per annum, on the judgment sum until the final liquidation of the judgment debt. Rather than obey the judgment of the Court of Appeal, GTB approached the Supreme Court to challenge the Court of Appeal’s decision.
“The Judgment debt of N2.4bn has an accrued interest as at today of about N6,717,909,849.96 which results to about N8.8 billion.
“Based on the Supreme Court’s decision of 27th February 2019 the counsel to Innoson, Prof McCarthy Mbadugha ESQ, had approached the Federal High Court, Awka Division for leave to enforce the judgment having obtained certificates of Judgment from the Ibadan Division of the Federal High Court.”
Chukwuma, the founder of Innoson Motors, had sued GTB in 2011, over claims of arbitrary charges against him and his accounts at the bank.
The bank however counter-sued, claiming that Chukwuma had falsified bank and shipping documents to obtain tax waivers from the Nigerian government and referred the matter to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The anti-financial crime body filed criminal charges against Chukwuma at a Lagos court. But Chukwuma denied the allegations by GTB saying the matter had previously been investigated by the EFCC and the police both of whom cleared him of any wrongdoing.