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Ecobank vs Honeywell: Court directs CJ to re-assign case

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The Court of Appeal in Lagos has directed Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta, to re-assign a winding-up petition by Ecobank Nigeria Limited against Honeywell Flour Mills Plc.
Justice Abimbola Obaseki-Adejumo said justice demands that both sides must be heard. She made no order as to cost.
The justice upheld an appeal by Honeywell against an ex-parte order made by Justice Mohammed Yunusa last December 4.
The company appealed against partial freezing of its accounts following an application by Ecobank’s lawyer Mr Kunle Ogunba (SAN), an insolvency expert.
Justice Yunusa had restrained Honeywell Group’s chairman, Dr Oba Otukedo, the company’s directors and subsidiaries from withdrawing from any bank or financial institution.
But Honeywell, through its lawyer Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) sought to discharge the order.
Justice Yunusa, in his ruling, on the application to discharge the order, held that the company could withdraw up to N60million in a month (N15million only per week) pending when the suit was heard and determined to enable Honeywell Group meet its financial obligations.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, Honeywell appealed, insisting that it wants full access to its funds. The suit is sequel to an alleged N3. 5 billion unpaid loan facility which Ecobank gave Honeywell.
Justice Obaseki-Adejumo said Justice Yunusa made the ex-parte order without notice to Honeywell. She said it violated the rules guiding winding-up petitions.
According to her, the rules state that every application in such a petition shall be by motion on notice to the person against whom the order was to be made.
“Justice of the case demands that both side be heard. The ruling of the Federal High Court is hereby set aside. The petition shall be assigned to another judge for necessary action. Parties shall bear their costs,” she held.
Ecobank had also appealed a ruling by Justice Mohammed Idris striking out contempt proceedings initiated against it by Achorage Leisures Limited and its sister company Siloam Global Services Limited, both of which are subsidiaries of Honeywell Group.
They accused the bank of disobeying an earlier directive by the judge that all parties should maintain status ante-bellum, which the bank denied.
Justice Mohammed Idris had last August 10 made an order of interim injunction restraining the bank from publishing the plaintiffs’ name as debtors and ordered parties to maintain status quo pending hearing of the plaintiffs’ suit.
But Honeywell said while the suit was pending, Ecobank filed other suits before other judges in a bid to recover its debt from Honeywell Group and its chairman Oba Otudeko.
Honeywell’s lawyers, therefore, filed Form 48 and Form 49, urging the court to hold the bank in contempt.
But Justice Idris struck out the contempt proceedings on the basis that no proper service was effected on the alleged contemnors.
Ogunba had argued on appeal that Justice Idris ought to have dismissed the proceedings rather than striking it out (which means it could be re-filed).
But the appellate court upheld Justice Idris’ ruling, adding that “the court cannot dissipate energy on an issue over which it had no jurisdiction.”
In a third appeal, Ecobank had challenged the lower court’s jurisdiction, but Justice Obaseki-Adejumo upheld Justice Idris’ assumption of jurisdiction, adding that there was a banker-customer relationship between Ecobank and Otudeko which vested the judge with jurisdiction.

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Court Sentence FCMB Branch Manager to 121 years in Prison for embezzling Customers Funds

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FCMB is a leading financial institution in Nigeria has received a big shock of the year as one of its staff has been thrown to prison for fraud and embezzlement.

Justice S. Odili at the Anambra State High Court in Onitsha, Anambra State, sentenced Mr Nwachukwu Placidus, a bank manager at First City Monument Bank FCMB, Onitsha Anambra State to 121 years in prison for embezzling N112 million from a customer’s fixed deposit account.

The Honorable justices delivered the verdict resulting in the conviction and sentencing of a former manager at the First City Monument Bank’s branch in Onitsha, who has now been sentenced to a total of 121 years in prison for misappropriating fixed deposit funds totaling N112,100,000 from a customer for personal use. This is tantamount to a breach of trust by the former manager which has attracted a huge jail term.

 

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Degree mills: FG to flush out fake certificate holders

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The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman has pledged to flush out persons in public and private organisations working with fake certificates.

Mamman made this known while speaking in Abuja on Friday when he received the report of an Inter-Ministerial Investigative Committee on Degree Certificate Milling from the Chairman of the committee , Prof. Jubrila Amin.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) report that the minister of education on Jan. 9, inaugurated an Inter-Ministerial Committee to examine the veracity of allegations of degrees racketeering within both foreign and local private universities.

The committee was mandated to review the role of any MDAs or its officials in facilitation of the recognition and procurement of fake certificates in question.

Mamman, who expressed sadness over what has been uncovered during the investigations, said that the ministry would work with relevant agencies to sanitise the education sector and rid it of any fake tendencies.

“We can’t afford to have the integrity of our education soar by some few persons.

“It is possible that some are carrying fake certificates in public and private organisations who needs to be flushed out. This report is a product of a thorough investigation.

“It is sad that someone who should come out from a Nigerian institution with a 2:1 or 2:2 is now parading an international certificate of first class.

“The ministry is determined to take steps to sanitise the system,” he said.

He pledged to take decisive role to ensure standards were enshrined in the system saying that ‘we can’t afford to let down our country when it comes to standards’.

Presenting the report, Chairman of the Inter-ministerial Committee, Amin, decried the horrible standards of education in those schools saying that many of those schools awarding degree certificates were an eye saw.

Amin said the problems at hand required speedy intervention, recommending that all agencies in the sector must digitise/automate their system.

He said that automating the entire education system was a way to go in such a way that you could sit in your office and monitor what is happening in all tertiary institutions.

According to him, in the course of our investigation, we realise that the present programme of accreditation and evaluation of results is inadequate.

He called for more universities in the country, saying that more universities to train PhD holders would help a lot rather than Nigerians going outside in search of certificates while ending up getting fake certificates.

He, therefore, urged the National Universities Commission (NUC) to pay more attention to institutions offering part time or sandwich programmes so we don’t have a repeat of 2017 saga of centres offering unaccredited courses.

“People go and get fake degrees and we have been to those countries and we know what a proper degree looks like, we know what the fake one looks like.

“We have given it to the ministry to scrutinise anyone presenting a certificate from those institutions and anything else is fake.

” It is up to the ministry to find out people with fake certificates and deal with them in whatever way they derm fit,” he said

 

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Just In: EFCC submits additional proof of evidence against Emefiele

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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has submitted additional proof of evidence against the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele.

During the court hearing on Friday, Emefiele’s counsel, Olalekan Ojo requested an adjournment to review the new evidence before continuing the cross-examination of John Ikechukwu Ayoh, the second prosecution witness.

Ojo accused the EFCC counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, of engaging in “trial by ambush” and not being diligent in their prosecution.

He told the court that he just received the additional proof of evidence from the EFCC.

He said the new proof of evidence was filed on Thursday, saying he needed to study the additional proof of evidence to cross-examine the prosecution witness.

He told the court, “My lord, there is a need to adjourn this case. We were just served these huge documents by the EFCC in court.

“The prosecution keeps dumping documents on us at every sitting. This is trial by ambush.”

Sharing the same sentiment, the counsel to the second defendant, Adeyinka Kotoye, also said he was served the additional proof of evidence five minutes after arriving in court.

In his defence, Oyedepo argued that they provided documents from a former aide to Emefiele in preparation for his testimony, saying it did not affect the ongoing cross-examination.

He added that it was unfair to describe the service of processes by the prosecution as “ambush by trial”.

Oyedepo emphasised that the additional evidence submitted were documents obtained from the phone of a former aide to Emefiele, John Adetona, who is set to testify as a witness.

He also clarified that these documents were provided in advance for Adetona’s future testimony and that he was not scheduled to appear in court on the present or upcoming hearing on May 9.

“The witness (Adetona) whose device the documents were printed from has not given evidence before the court,” Oyedepo said.

“In preparation for his testimony which is not coming up today or May 9, the prosecution rather waiting for the defence to formally demand the hard copies the prosecution team printed the documents out.

“How does that amount to prosecutorial unfairness?”

Oyedepo, however, requested that the court instruct the defence counsels to conclude their cross-examination of the second prosecution witness.

He clarified that the introduction of new documents does not hinder or impact the ongoing cross-examination of this witness.

However, Emefiele’s lawyer disagreed, stating that he needed time to review the new documents as they may contain valuable information for use during cross-examination.

In his ruling, the presiding judge, Rahman Oshodi, agreed with the defendant’s counsel.

Oshodi then adjourned the matter to May 9.

Emefiele and his co-defendant, Henry Omoile, are currently being tried in a Lagos high court on a 26-count charge.

Both the former CBN governor and Omoile pleaded not guilty to all the charges against them.

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