Court Bars Firms From Accessing N1.37b In 24 Banks

Justice Akintayo Aluko of the Federal High Court, Lagos, has granted an interim order of Mareva Injunction restraining Duport Midstream Company Limited, Platform Capital Investment Partners Limited and their Managing Director, Akintoye Akindele, from accessing N1,379,400,918 or its equivalent in any currency in 24 banks pending the determination of a motion on notice filed by Union Bank.

The judge made the order following an application by the bank through its counsel, Temilolu Adamolekun, in suit marked FHC/L/CS/1709/2023.

The banks, who are the 4th to 27th respondents in the case, are, Access, Citibank, Ecobank, Fidelity, First Bank, First City Monument Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, Globus, Heritage, Jaiz, Keystone, Lotus, Parallex, Polaris, Providus, Stanbic IBTC, Standard Chartered, Sterling, Suntrust, Titan Trust, United Bank of Nigeria, Unity, Wema and Zenith.

The applicant alleged that the 1st to 3rd defendants were indebted to it to the tune of N1,379,400,918 as of June 30, 2023, “while interest continues to accrue under the terms of the various facilities granted by the applicant to the 1st defendant for several purposes as captured on the various offer letters.”

Granting the ex parte application motion, Justice Aluko held that iit is hereby ordered as follows: “That an interim order of Mareva Injunction restraining the defendants from dealing with any of the monies standing to their credit in all of their accounts, records or howsoever held with the 4th to 27th respondents and also their monies standing to their credit in custody of the applicant up to the tune of N1,379,400,918 or its equivalence in any foreign currency pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice is hereby granted.”

The court further restrained the banks from releasing to the defendants any monies, funds or any other instrument belonging to the defendants, to the tune of N1.3 billion or its equivalence in any foreign currency that may be or found in their custody.

It further granted an order directing the banks “to disclose on oath whatever sum of money that may be in their custody belonging to the defendants” for further direction of the court.

The case was adjourned to September 13, 2023 for hearing of the motion on notice.