Innoson Group, on Sunday warned
GTBank to respect the judgement of the Supreme Court which ordered it to pay
the company N8.7billion.
The Federal High Court sitting in
Ibadan had on Friday refused to hear or grant GTBank an injunction to restrain
Innoson from continuing to levy execution against it; the court also refused to
stay execution.
Cornel Osigwe, Head Corporate
Communications, in a statement said despite the decision of the Supreme Court
on February 27th 2019 dismissing the appeal by Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) and
affirming the concurrent judgment of Court of Appeal, Ibadan division and
Federal High Court Ibadan, which ordered GTB by way of Garnishee Order Absolute
to pay Innoson Nigeria Ltd the sum of N2.4 Billion with a 22% interest, per
annum, on the judgment sum until the final liquidation of the judgment debt,
the bank is yet to comply with this order.
He noted that in order to stop
Innoson from continuing with taking over its assets in execution of the
aforesaid judgment, GTB approached the Federal High Court, Ibadan on Friday,
5th April 2019 and requested the court, through a motion, to stay execution and
or for an injunction restraining Innoson from continuing with executing a
judgment which the Supreme Court has affirmed when it dismissed the GTB’s
appeal against the Court of Appeal’s decision affirming the High Court’s
judgment and order in favour of Innoson.
The statement added’ “We had
previously stated that in a garnishee proceedings, once an order of garnishee
nisi is made, the garnishee is required by law to set the amount involved aside
and will not allow the judgment debtor to withdraw from it; and if the order is
made absolute, the garnishee pays the money to the judgment creditor and incurs
no liability for doing that but if the order is not made absolute the garnishee
returns the money to the judgment debtor.
“It will be recalled that the
order was made absolute since 29th July 2011 and GTB held unto the money from
that time and is using it for its business.
“It follows that by the time the
order was made absolute it was no more the judgment debtor’s money but rather
that of Innoson Nigeria Ltd who is the judgment creditor; if a garnishee
refuses to comply with the order, then, it becomes a judgment debtor, as GTB
has become in the present case, against whom execution of the order will issue.
“Innoson Nigeria Ltd is aware
that GTB had earlier deposed to an affidavit in the court that its banking
operation will be seriously and adversely affected, and also its capital base
eroded if it complies with the order of the court.
“Based on the foregoing and in
furtherance of the letter to GTB by Counsel to Innoson Nigeria Ltd, McCarthy
Mbadugha & Co on March 25th, 2019 that it pays the N2.4B Judgment debt to
Innoson Nigeria Ltd with the accrued interest of N6,717,909,849.96, Innoson
Nigeria Ltd therefore demands from GTB that if its banking operation will be
seriously and adversely affected, and its capital base eroded as a result of
the N8.7B judgment debt, that it should as a matter of utmost urgency convert
the said sum or part of it into shares and allot same to Innoson Nigeria Ltd.
“This will save taking it over in
the manner Innoson is doing.”
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com