The National Industrial Court of Nigeria has ordered Fidelity Bank and the Benue State Government to pay the sum of N1.4 billion to one Aondohemba Agba Injo and 210 others over unpaid claims of the creditors who are staff of the defunct Taraku Mills Limited.
The court also issued a writ of execution against the garnished /respondent thereafter, by directing the deputy sherriff of the court to seal the bank’s branches in Abuja, Lafia, Makurdi and any other in Nigeria for the purpose of enforcing the judgment of the court.
The two major branches of the bank in Abuja situated in the Central Business Area and Maitama were consequently sealed up today, November 24, 2020.
Honourable Justice R. B Haastrup, who delivered the judgment on November 19, 2020, in a suit no NICN/ABJ/241M/2020, said, “I have carefully perused through the processes filed by the judgment creditors /applicants herein and have also listened to the oral submissions of counsel in respect thereto vis-a-vis the authorities cited in support thereof.
“The rules of this court as stated by the applicant’s counsel are indeed clear on the requirements for the issuance of the writ of execution as embodied in Order 49 Rules 3 and 6, which the applicants herein have compiled with”.
While the seal up of Fidelity Bank was executed in some of its branches in Abuja, a top bank manager said the process of paying off the debts has begun.
One of the creditors, Aondohemba Agba Injo, who besieged the bank premises told our reporter that, “they have showed us bank drafts to show that they are processing the payments but what we don’t know is if it’s a gimmick because they promised to complete it in three hours but it’s well past three hours now. But we are still here and waiting”.
Sources, however, told our correspondent that the bank is slow in the process because they want to buy time to see if they could approach the Supreme Court for stay of execution.
