Court Jails Fidelity Bank MD Nneka Chinwe Onyeali-Ikpe [See Documents]

Newsone Nigeria reports that Magistrate Lateef Owolabi gave the sentence sequel to a garnishee order he gave on December 6, 2022, asking 16 banks not to allow a judgment debtor, Prince Enabulele Ozaze access to his bank accounts pending the payment of N2.8 million judgment debt in a suit involving the sale of a Toyota Corolla car.

This newspaper recalls that Magistrate Owolabi had in the main suit, given judgment on October 13, 2022, in favour of the plaintiff, Jibrin Ahmed who sued the defendant over the payment of N2.8 million he made to the defendant for the purchase of a Toyota Corolla car. Magistrate Owolabi in the judgment said that the claim before the court is summons used in action for debt or liquidated money demand with or without interest. Liquidated demand, according to him, is one ascertainable as a matter of arithmetic precision without further investigation.

He then said:

“I have examined the whole process filed by the claimant and hold that the claimant is entitled to judgment not necessarily because the defendant is absent, but because the claimant has made a case worthy of being entitled to judgment. The totalities of evidence presented are relevant and reliable”.

The magistrate, thereafter, entered judgment against the defendant in the sum of N2.8 million which is due to the claimant over the transaction that took place in July 2022.

Alayo Akanbi, the claimant’s lawyer, in order to reap the fruit of the judgment, filed a garnishee proceeding before the court and attached 17 banks, and asked the court to stop the banks from allowing the defendant to draw money from his accounts with them pending the liquidation of the debt. The garnishee order was granted on December 6, 2022.

However, on January 25, 2023, the claimant, now judgment creditor deposed to an affidavit before the court where he showed that the garnishee order have been flouted by Fidelity bank. He showed instances of how the judgment debtor had been withdrawing funds from his account to the extent that he had depleted the funds in his account with Fidelity bank. He claimed that the judgment debtor has N3, 165, 759.05k in his account with Fidelity bank as of January 12, 2023, when the garnishee order was served on the bank.

The judgment debtor had withdrawn N725,547.80k from the account by January 15, three days after service. The following day, January 16, 2023, another N251,305.90 was transferred out of the bank. On January 17, the legal officer of the bank Obianuju Nwosu confirmed service on the bank as of December 22, 2022, and further apologized for the transactions on the account.

Newsone reports that the court on January 18, 2023, ordered that Fidelity Bank MD and Fidelity Bank Secretary appear in person before the court to explain why they should not be committed to prison for allowing the judgment debtor to dissipate the funds in his account after the service of the garnishee order nisi.

At the proceeding today, Monday, February 6, 2023, Fidelity Bank MD Nneka Chinwe and Fidelity Bank Secretary Ezinwa Unuigboje, were not in court as ordered. The lawyer to the judgment creditor told the court how the two had disobeyed the garnishee order of the court.

In his ruling, Magistrate Owolabi of the Ogba Magistrate Court sentenced Fidelity Bank MD Nneka Chinwe and Fidelity Bank Secretary Ezinwa Unuigboj to six weeks imprisonment each. He further ordered the Lagos State Commissioner of Police and any officer under his command to arrest the duo, and bring them to court for onward transfer to the appropriate correctional center.

See the court documents of the sentencing of Fidelity Bank MD Nneka Chinwe and Fidelity Bank Secretary Ezinwa Unuigboj below…