Court orders closure of Heritage Bank over unpaid debt

Honourable Justice (Dr.) I.J. Essien of the National Industrial Court seated in Makurdi, the capital city of Benue State, has ordered garnishee order, instructing the immediate closure of Heritage Bank Limited, after it failed to remit an amount exceeding N710 million to Shehu Mudi and 656 other entities.

This is following judgment in a garnishee order issued against Heritage Bank in lawsuit tagged number MCN/MKD/07m/202, filed by Shehu Mudi.

The Court maintained its stance that the bank’s branches must remain shut until it fully adheres to the directives outlined in the garnishee order.

This is coming amid heightened concerns by customers of the bank bordering on its faulty operations and inability to avail funds for withdrawals across the counter in several branches.

Justice Essien said that while considering the exhibits and arguments, he recalls the court made an Order Absolute in Exhibit A, which stipulated that the Garnishee should remit the Judgment amount being sought through this application within a span of 3 days.

He said this specific directive was further validated by the Court of Appeal and confirmed in Exhibit D, which is contained within its ruling and documented as Appeal Number CA (MK/26/2022).

He added that within this judgment, the Garnishee was explicitly instructed to fulfill the Judgment debt within a 3-day period.

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Regrettably, despite the multiple orders that have been issued by both this Court and the Court of Appeal, Garnishee has continued to blatantly disregard the mandate laid out by this Court’s Order.

Further to this, despite the Garnishee’s undertaking to pay the Judgement sum to anywhere located in Nigeria until the Garnishee (Heritage Bank PLC), comply with the Order of the Court of Appeal directing it to pay to the judgment creditor the sum of N710,969,140.19 which is made up of the judgment sum and interest accrued from 14/12/2021 to December 2022 which sum has been set aside by the garnishee and party represented by the bond entered into at the Court of Appeal by the garnishee.

Heritage Bank continues to wallow in murky waters under the watch of its embattled Chief Executive, Akinola George Taylor who was recently entangled in an alleged messy boardroom crisis that saw the sacking of staff who are perceived as loyalists of his predecessor, Ifie Sekibo.

It remains to be seen how the new leadership of Heritage Bank Plc under the watch of Akinola George-Taylor intends to steer the lender off troubled waters, but key indicators suggest that things are not good.

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