Posted on: 09:03 Thu, 14 Jan 2016

Court Seals Skye Bank in Osun



A High Court in Osun State has sealed a
branch of Skye Bank Plc in Osogbo,
Osun State. Court Bailliffs reportedly
removed some valuable property and
sealed the branch to execute the order
of the court got Tuns Farms Nigeria
Limited against the bank.
Tuns Farms Limited and other
subsidiaries of Tuns company had got
three separate court judgments against
the bank totalling N3,991,150 .000
( N3.9bn) and the judgments were
affirmed by the Court of Appeal, Akure .
The company applied to the court and
got the writ of attachment and sale
against goods of judgment debtor (Skye
Bank) and the order was executed with
the sealing of the branches and removal
of the bank’s property.
The bailiffs, who were escorted to the
branches by heavily armed policemen
drove out the bank officials, locked the
doors and removed some property.
Tuns claimed in the writ of summon
that the bank offered a credit facility of
N414,000,000 to it and the offer was
accepted with the plan to use the fund
to develop its property in Abuja.
Tuns projected to earn a net income of
N1.152bn from the project but the bank
turned round and released only N150
million thereby breaching the
contractual agreements entered with the
company.

In a certified true copy of one of the
judgments delivered by Justice A. O.
Ogunlade on March 14, 2014, the court
held, “I am convinced by overwhelming
evidence laid before me that the
Defendant (Skye Bank) breached the
fundamental terms of the contract in
facility 11 of Exhibit PA1 without lawful
justification and I hereby make an
award of special damage in full to the
Claimant, in the sum of N421,384,000,
being the loss the Claimant suffered due
to the refusal and failure of the
Defendant to comply with the terms and
conditions of the contract of 17th
August, 2005.

“The claimant through one of the
paragraphs of its statement of claim has
established the fact that the breach of
the terms and conditions of the contract
in facility 11 of Exhibit PA1 caused the
Claimant’s director and shareholders
myriad of psychological trauma and
emotional breakdown.”
Counsel to Tuns, Chief Duro Adeyele
(SAN), told journalists that the three
cases were resolved in favour of his
clients and the Court of Appeal affirmed
the judgments.

Adeyele said the court awarded N902m
against the bank in one judgment;
N460m in the second verdict and
N2.6bn in the third one totalling
N3,991,150.000.
He stated that there was nothing
inhibiting his client from executing the
judgment, saying the sealing and
removal of property would be extended
to any branch of the bank in Nigeria if
they could not raise the judgment sum.


SOURCE: Punchg