Zenith Bank reacts to the judge’s alleged accusations of bribery for over 11 years, provides copies of the judgement to refute said allegations.
The bank countered that nowhere in the ‘Certified True Copy (CTC) of the judgement made available to publishers, did the judge make such statements.
Although all efforts by our correspondent to get a confirmation from the bank proved abortive as they neither picked nor returned the calls.
According to Zenith Bank’s copy of the ‘Real Integrated Judgement‘, the following were stated;
While Justice Abike-Fadipe was stern in her judgment of Zenith Bank, she did not accuse the bank of buying judges and lawyers for 11 years in order to illegally change the course of justice.
In the CTC of the judgment, Godwin Emefiele of the Central Bank of Nigeria was also not mentioned.
The judge’s comments, as contained in Zenith Bank provided copy of the judgement include;
“The 1st defendant has been the beneficiary of the malevolent game of chess it plunged both claimant and the 2nd defendant into, holding the sum of N872,780,552.84 in its custody without paying interest thereon from 17th February 2011 until 2nd February 2016 when the Court ordered that the money be paid into an interest yielding account in the names of the claimant and the 2nd defendant pending determination of the suit, which order was curiously varied by the consent of all the parties on 20th September 2016 so that the money remained in the 1st defendant’s custody without interest.
“The act of the 1st defendant was unconscionable and detrimental to the goodwill of the claimant and its trade credit with its customers. It was a deliberate and malicious act against the interest of the claimant and the 1st defendant continues to enjoy the largesse in bad faith. Exhibits C4 and C5 clearly state that the funds to be transferred were to offset part of the claimant’s indebtedness for the importation of dictionaries, but the 1st defendant was impervious to this need. I therefore find and hold that the claimant is entitled to substantial damages against the 1st defendant for the injury caused to it.”
The judge made the comments while granting the claimants four reliefs.
The reliefs are that the 1st defendant (Zenith) was in breach of contract when on 7th October, 2011 it refused the claimant to draw from its account No. 1012465427 “despite the fact that the said account was in enough credit to cover the withdrawals sought to be made on the said date.”
The judge further restrained the bank “from disturbing or refusing the claimant from operating its account No. 1012465427 in the 1st defendant’s bank or from honouring the claimant’s transfer or payment obligations to third parties from the said account as long as same is in credit.”
It granted;
“An interest of 15% per annum on the sum of N872,780,552.84 from 7th October 2011 when the 1st defendant denied the claimant access to the funds in its account which was in credit at that date till judgment.
“Interest on the judgment sum at the rate of 10% per annum from judgment date till final liquidation thereof.
“Costs of this action in the sum of N2.5million.”
Click here to download Integrated Judgement provided by Zenith Bank
