A chief magistrate court at Ogba, Lagos state, on Monday morning, February 6, sentenced the managing director of Fidelity Bank, Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe, to
A chief magistrate court at Ogba, Lagos state, on Monday morning, February 6, sentenced the managing director of Fidelity Bank, Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe, to six weeks in prison for disobeying a garnishee order of the court.
Ezinwa Unuigboje, the company secretary of the bank, also joined with the managing director to serve the imprisonment.
The 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 suit involving the sale of a Toyota Corolla car.
Magistrate Owolabi, on October 13, 2022, gave the judgment 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 held that, “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 totality 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.
The claimant’s lawyer, Alayo Akanbi, filed a garnishe proceeding before the court and attached 17 banks.
He further asked the court to stop the banks from allowing the defendant to withdraw money from his accounts with them pending the liquidation of the debt.
The garnishe 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 garnishe 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 garnishe order was served on the bank.
On January 18, 2023, the court ordered Onyeali-Ikpe, and the company secretary, to 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 garnishe order.
However, at the proceeding on Monday, the managing director and company secretary were not in court as ordered.
Lawyer to the judgment creditor also told the court how the two had disobeyed the garnishe order of the court.
Magistrate Owolabi, in his ruling, sentenced the Onyeali-Ikpe and Unuigboje to six weeks imprisonment each.
He further ordered the Lagos state commissioner of police under to arrest the duo, bring them to court for onward transfer to the appropriate correctional center.
