On Wednesday, at the resumed hearing before a Lagos State
High Court sitting at Osborne, Ikoyi, the Court threatened to jail executives
of banks who fail to disclose the amount to the credit of Imagine Global
Holding Company Ltd, Imagine Global Solutions Ltd, Mr Bamise Samson Ajetunmobi
and Mrs Elizabeth Anuoluwapo Ajetunmobi.
The two firms and the Ajetunmobi couple have been associated
with an N11,795,090,000 investment scam, by the claimants/applicants who are
aggrieved Nigerian investors.
According to the Claimants/Applicants’ motion, over N11,795b
is the outstanding investments and return on investments accruing to them from
the defendants.
Justice Toyin Oyekan-Abdullahi, who gave the warning, noted
that some banks are yet to comply with the court’s October 24, 2021 orders that
it granted in favour of the investors.
The orders restrained commercial banks in Nigeria from
releasing funds up to N11,795,090,000 to the two firms and the Ajetunmobi
Couple.
The orders also commanded the banks to, among others, file
and serve on the Claimants/Applicants’ counsel, Adetunji Adedoyin-Adeniyi of
AAA Chambers, within seven days of service of the order on them, an affidavit
disclosing the balance on the defendants’ accounts.
The orders followed a Motion on Notice for a Mareva
Injunction filed ex parte by the Claimants/Applicants on October 15, 2021 in
suit LD/579CM/2021.
At the commencement of yesterday’s proceedings Justice
Oyekan-Abdullahi expressed displeasure with some of the banks’ conduct that
failed to strictly comply with the Order of Court.
She warned that besides sanctioning any defaulting bank
executive, any lawyer that acts anything contrary to the order of court would
also risk being sanctioned, because “the court will not allow the citizens of
this country to keep weeping because of the absconding investors.”
The judge’s allusion to abscondment was in reference to news
reports that the Ajetunmobis had obtained the citizenship of Antigua and
Barbuda, with the country’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne stating on October 20
that they would be captured if they entered the Carribean country.
The court heard that one of those affected by the conduct of
the Ajetunmobis and their companies was Wema Bank which allegedly gave loan to
Imagine Global in September, 2021, after accepting the defendants’ properties
as collateral, as contained in the application filed by Wema Bank seeking to
discharge the Order of court as an interested party.
But Adedoyin-Adeniyi opposed the application on the ground
that Wema Bank is equally a victim as much as the claimants, by virtue of the
personal guarantees the Defendants executed in favour of the claimants as far
back as January, 2020.
Furthermore, Babalakin & Co equally filed an application
on behalf of a firm known as Mainstreet Capital Ltd, which also invested in the
defendants, as contained in an application filed through the law firm seeking
to join as co-claimant in the suit.
Adedoyin-Adeniyi also opposed the application, arguing that
many organisations which lacked courage to go after the couple due to the
sensitive nature of the matter, now wanted to piggyback on the claimants who
had approached the court for mareva orders.
He argued that the claimants should not be compelled to allow
other parties to join the case, rather, anyone with grievances against the couple
“should go and file his own case.”
Adedoyin equally alleged that N17Billion had passed through
Imagine Global’s account with Wema Bank between May, 2020 and May, 2021 and the
Bank is yet to place before the court the detailed statement of account of Imagine
Global Ltd.
Justice Oyekan-Abdullahi has adjourned till November 11, 2021
for the banks to show cause in compliance with the order of court.
Part of the court’s orders includes barring the four
defendants from accessing funds up to N11,795,090,000 in their accounts with
the banks, pending the hearing and determination of a Motion on Notice for a
Mareva Injunction.
The court also barred the banks – in the interim – from
dealing with all monies and/or whatsoever assets due to the defendants from any
account maintained by the 1st – 4th defendants and also all accounts with BVN:
22168443525 (3rd Defendant) and BVN:22141952749 (4th Defendant), up to the
N11,795,090,000.
It further restrained the defendants from selling,
transferring, assigning and/or dealing with the following properties: Apartment
7, Oakwood Residences, 23, Cooper Street, Ikoyi, Lagos and B4, Gate 3, Lafiaji
Road, Victoria Crescent Estate, Olugborogon, Chevron, Lekki, Lagos or any other
properties/assets of the 1st, 2nd 3rd and 4th Defendants that can be traced and
located by Claimants/ Applicants during the pendency of the suit.
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