Guaranty Trust Bank (GTCO) has initiated legal proceedings against 60 top executives from 13 commercial banks over a N17 billion debt related to the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), News About Nigeria reports.
The executives include chairmen, chief executive officers, directors, and company secretaries from the involved banks.
The contempt proceedings arise from the alleged failure to enforce a No-Debit Order on the accounts of Afex Commodity Exchange, which GTBank claims is essential for recovering the debt.
GTBank and Afex Commodity Exchange are embroiled in a legal dispute over the unpaid amount.
The banks involved in the proceedings are Access Bank, Citibank, Jaiz Bank, Union Bank, Fidelity Bank, First Bank of Nigeria Plc, First City Monument Bank, NDIC (liquidator for Heritage Bank), Polaris Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Taj Bank, United Bank for Africa, and Zenith Bank, along with their principal officers.
In case number FHC/L/CS/911/2024, filed at the Federal High Court in Lagos, Justice CJ Aneke signed an order to commit the affected individuals to jail for failing to comply with a May 27 ruling.
The court had directed 20 banks to transfer funds standing to the credit of Afex into GTBank’s account until the N17.81 billion debt is repaid.
The loans include N15.7 billion, the amount outstanding as of April 17, 2024, and additional recovery costs and incidental expenses totaling N2.04 billion.
The court also granted an injunction allowing GTBank to take over 16 Afex warehouses located across seven states and sell the commodities purchased with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Anchor Borrowers’ loan facility.
Earlier this month, the court had served contempt proceedings against Afex and several of its principal officers, including Ayodele Balogun, Jendayi Fraser, Justin Topilow, Mobolaji Adeoye, and Koonal Ghandi.
The matter has been adjourned to next Thursday for further proceedings.
