The Management of Heritage Bank has denied the accusation by a firm, Geonel Integrated Services Limited, alleging that the bank is in a state of financial insolvency.
“Our attention has been drawn to a malicious and untrue report trending online, titled, “Heritage Bank Should be Shut Down- Company Tells Court, CBN” and about the bank’s financial and liquidity condition that questioned the ability of the bank to honour its obligatory engagements with a customer, Geonel Integrated Services Limited.”
“We want to state categorically that Heritage Bank is not distressed as being malevolently reported, the bank is capable to honour its obligations to customers and numerous stakeholders alike.”
In the statement, Heritage Bank stated that it was advised formally to freeze the account by the federal agency through court injunction pending when the investigation will be concluded.
“Investigation is still ongoing and the bank is under obligation to respect a valid order of court,” the stated added
Geonel Integrated Services Limited in a petition filed at an Abuja Federal Court on Wednesday by its counsel Mazi Afam Osigwe, alleged that it maintains four separate accounts with Nos. 1300083902, 6200100931, 6000105125 and 3200121515 as well as a fixed deposit account at the Abuja branch of the bank.
Petitioner owned by a foreign investor, Mr. Wolfgang Reinl, an Australian Security Experts claimed it has N1, 811,555,258 and another $85,859 in the accounts and that the huge sums have been trapped in the bank due to its inability to meet up with its expected obligations.
Petitioner alleged that in January last year, a Judge of the court, Binta Murtala Nyako granted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) an order to freeze the accounts for a period of six months to carry out some investigations.
It claimed that the order granted EFCC expired on July 24, 2016 and that the same Justice Binta Murtala Nyako confirmed expiration of the order in her ruling delivered on November 16, 2016.