Some shareholders of the defunct Intercontinental Bank on Tuesday sued Malam Lamido Sanusi, the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, for allegedly selling the bank to Access Bank.
The plaintiffs, Abdullahi Sani, Adaeze Onwuegbusi and Chijioke Ezeikpe, through their counsel, Chris Uche (SAN), in a motion ex-parte at a Federal High court Abuja, are asking for N10 billion damages.
The CBN and Securities and Exchange Commission were joined in the suit as co-defendants.
The plaintiffs’ counsel, in the originating summons, argued that Sanusi deliberately strangulated the operations of his clients’ bank by falsifying its actual financial state before revoking its operating licence.
He alleged that the suspended CBN governor went on to undervalue the bank and sold it to his friends, to the detriment of the plaintiffs, who were shareholders.
The plaintiffs claim that Sanusi’s friends, who bought Intercontinental Bank, constituted the bulk of those with alleged non-performing loans.
They said it was the purported reason for declaring the bank insolvent.
Uche submitted that instead of recovering the loans totaling N25 billion from them, Sanusi waived the repayments and sold the bank at a ridiculous N50 billion to his debtor-friends.
He said that at the time of the transaction in August 2009, the bank had a paid-up capital of N230 billion and 330 branches nationwide.
The bank at the time, according to him, has a balance sheet of N1.6 billion and staff strength of over 12,000.
The plaintiffs’ counsel, therefore, urged the court to declare the take-over of Intercontinental Bank by Access Bank under Sanusi’s instructions and supervision “unlawful, fraudulent, illegal, null and void”.
He also prayed for a court order for SEC to conduct a detailed investigation into the transaction, to protect his clients’ interest and apply appropriate sanctions against parties in the alleged fraud.
Uche prayed the court to order the CBN to recover the N25 billion loan being owed by Sanusi’s friends with accrued interest.
The plaintiffs added: “It is also in the interest of justice for this court to grant us N10 billion damages as we have suffered untold hardships, including retrenchment from the services of the bank.
“This was due to fraudulent acts, corrupt practises, collusion and abuse of public office by the first defendant.”
Justice Ahmed Mohammed granted the plaintiffs’ application to serve Sanusi by substituted means as prayed by their counsel and adjourned the case until May 14 for hearing.
He ordered that Sanusi should be served with the originating summons and all other processes through an official of the CBN or the notices be pasted on the CBN Notice Board.
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