By now it is clear that the GTBank/Innoson/EFCC saga now involves every Nigerian including those in diaspora. Interestingly, a team of analysts in Europe, have carried out an independent analysis of the issues on ground and have established the facts. They decided to remain anonymous for now until the outcome of the court cases.
According to them, the analysis was carried out through examination of evidences from both GTBank, Innoson as well as the Nigerian Police. Other persons that were interviewed includes, some top Managers in GTBank, Chief accountant at Innoson Motors, Customs personnel and others.
While all the details of the examination will not be presented, a summary that would enable you have a proper and comprehensive view is presented below.
Analysis if based on events from 2009 to 19th December
There are three primary issues:
Issue 1: Innoson's Case Against GTBank
Issue 2: GTBanks Case Against Innoson For Forgery
Issue 3: Innoson's Case With Customs and GTBank
Let's take them one after the other
1. Innoson's Case Against GTBank (Awka, Enugu)
- Innoson sued GTBank to court (Federal High Court, Awka) for unlawful deduction from his account. (FHC/Awk/ Cs/2012)
- The court heard the case and the final outcome of this was that GTBank was ordered to pay a sum of N4.77bilion to Innoson.
- GTBank appealed this judgement. (CA/ E/288/2013)
- The court of appeal made a ruling that ordered GTBank to pay a N6 billion to a an interest-yielding account in the name of Chief Registrar of the Court (this is the same as pay the money to the court, to keep until all is finalized)
- GTBank went to the supreme court. That is where this Issue No. 1 is currently.
The analysts continues to monitor this case, currently in the Supreme Court.
2. GTBank's Case Against Innoson for Forgery
- GTBank sued Innoson for forgery through the Nigerian Police (FHC /L/565C/2015)
- After about a year, the Police withdrew the charges and decided to first do an investigation
- GTBank sued Innoson to court, this time obtained an order for Innoson's account to be frozen. (Sept. 2014)
- This order was set aside a year after by Federal High Court, Lagos.
- At this point, Innoson believed that is have suffered losses during the months his account was frozen. So he sued GTBank to court for damages up to the tune of 30 billion Naira. This case is currently in the high court.
The analysts continue to monitor this case...
3. Innoson's Case With Custom and GTBank (Ibadan)
- Innoson sued GTBank and Customs Service to court (Federal High Court Ibadan) for auctioning his goods
- The Court heard the case and ruled that GTBank pay Innoson 2 billion Naira
- GTBank appealed the judgement (CA/I/258/2011)
- The court of appeal heard the case and affirmed the previous judgement, ordering GTBank to pay N2billion to Innoson
- GTBank appealed to the Supreme Court
- The Supreme Court dismissed the dismissed the suit
- This is the current status of this issue
Involvement of EFCC
Effort was made to reach EFCC and they provided anonymously some information that we would like to share.
They pointed out that, Mr. Innocent have been invited several times but refuse to appear, therefore he was arrested. However, proofs of the earlier invitations was requested but for now it has not been provided.
Possibilities
If Supreme Court affirms the decisions of the two other judgements, then GTBank have to pay the said amount. If that happens, then that increases the possibility of the N30 billion suit successfully scaling through and that would deal a fatal blow on GTBank as a financial institution. If this happens, then it means that the only way GTBank would survive is by the intervention of the CBN, which would always happen anyways
There are a number of other issues, but for now these are the summary. We would monitor the situation and provide updates as information become available to us.
