N13 billion debt: Court freezes SPDC accounts

Justice Okechukwu Okeke of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has restrained Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) from paying, transferring, crediting and or making any further payment as contribution and deductions from members of the SPDC West Multipurpose Co-operative Society Limited (otherwise known as Shell Staff Co-op Thrift and Credit Society (SSCTCS)) to any other bank except United Bank for Africa (UBA) PLC.The court also ordered nine commercial banks to disclose all the assets of Shell Staff Co-op Thrift and Credit Society with them. The banks include Access Bank PLC, Bank PHB PLC, Diamond Bank PLC, Equatorial Trust Bank Ltd, First Bank of Nigeria PLC, Zenith Bank PLC, Spring Bank PLC, Guaranty Trust Bank PLC and First City Monument Bank PLC.The court’s action is sequel to a motion ex-parte dated May 11, 2011 and filed on May 26 by UBA in its bid to recover a debt of N13.093 billion from SSCTCS in a suit pending before the court.The suit is between UBA PLC and SSCTCS but UBA, the plaintiff in the suit also joined Director Co-operative societies, Delta State as co-defendants.Justice Okeke also restrained SSCRCS and its directors, officers and their agents from demanding and accepting money from the nine banks mentioned, including UBA.  Besides, the court also barred the company and its agents from receiving any payment of sales or dividends on the shares it owned in the sister companies including Cordros Capital Limited, MBC Securities Limited, CashcraftAssts Management Limited, Law Union and Rock PLC, Maven Asset Management Ltd., BGL securities Ltd, Eurocomm Securities Ltd and UBA Stockbrokers Ltd.In an application sworn to by the principal remedial officer of UBA, Mr Yomi Dada, and filed before the court by Barrister Oluwakemi Balogun, in which the court granted the orders, the deponent averred that UBA granted upon request a N10 billion mortgage facility to SSCTCS to finance acquisition of homes by members of staff in January 2007.The said loan was secured by irrevocable domiciliation of all the company’s members’ monthly contribution and deductions to be paid to the bank as well as legal mortgage on the property to be acquired by all members of staff of the company.SSCTCS was to forward to UBA originals of the title documents as well as all other duty-executed documents required within four weeks of payment. UBA also directed the company to ensure that its main account was adequately funded in order to absorb the monthly loan deductions.Contrary to the agreement between the two parties, the company was alleged to have diverted the funds meant for the acquisition of properties into other use, to wit: purchase of shares in some of the companies listed above and depositing huge sums of money with some commercial banks.In order to make the defendant abide by the rules and regulations guiding the contract, UBA wrote several letters to the company on the need to fund its account.But instead of paying the loan, the company admitted an indebtedness of N2,729,687,380.00 and requested the bank to write off the sum of N5,640,000,000.UBA carried out forensic investigations and it was revealed that the company, acting through its authorized officials, deliberately perfected the alleged monument fraud on the bank, forcing it to write a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over the alleged fraud perpetuated by the company and its officials who were unjustifiably holding on to third-party deposition funds advanced by UBA PLC in the ordinary course of business. These revelations came to light when some of the company’s officials were arrested by the EFCC. The outstanding indebtedness of the company in favour of the bank now stands at N13, 093, 13638, 18 as at 15 April, 2011. UBA therefore prayed the court, in the interest of justice, for a freezing of the company’s account, a request which the court granted.