Some shareholders of the defunct Oceanic Bank Plc (now Eco Bank Plc) on Tuesday asked a Federal High Court in Lagos to compel the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) to return the N191 billion worth of assets forfeited by Mrs. Cecelia Ibru back to Oceanic Bank.
Ibru had forfeited the assets as part of the plea bargain arrangement between her and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2010, which was sanctioned by the former Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Dan Abutu.
The plaintiffs are chairman of the Association of Oceanic Bank Shareholders, Boniface Okezie and Adewale Basirat Abolanle, while AMCON, CBN, EFCC, Federal Attorney General and Ibru are the defendants.
The plaintiffs are praying for an order declaring that Ibru was liable to make good to them, monies and assets improperly paid out or converted or otherwise improperly acquired from Oceanic Bank before its merger with Ecobank, arising from Ibru’s self-acknowledged acts of breach of her fiduciary duty to Oceanic Bank and them as shareholders.”
They also prayed for an order vesting them with powers to recover from Ibru and other defendants by way of tracing, the assets forfeited by Ibru as well as the transferring the control of the said assets to them through their solicitor, Indemnity Partners.
They also prayed for an order setting aside the part of the plea bargain and settlement agreement between Ibru and the EFCC in the proceedings before Justice Abutu where parties agreed that the disputed assets should be forfeited to the Federal Government.
Chuks Nwachuku, lawyer to the shareholders, listed four grounds for the originating summons, and argued that the said plea bargain deal constituted an admission by the defendants that the assets forfeited by Ibru represented proceeds of her breach of the fiduciary duty which she owed to the former Oceanic Bank and its shareholders.
In the second ground, the shareholders averred that the settlement part of the agreement where parties agreed that the assets should be forfeited to the Federal Government amounted to breach of the fundamental rights of Oceanic Bank and its shareholders, and also a breach of the right to freedom of property guaranteed under Section 44 of the 1999 Constitution.