A High Court sitting in Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, on Tuesday, ordered the First City Monument Bank (FCMB) to compensate the founder of the Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministry, Emmanuel Omale, and his wife, Deborah, the sum of N540.5 million in damages over false claim that the couple laundered N573 million for the former chairman of the Economic Financial, Crime Commission, (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu.
Delivering judgement in the suit, Yusuf Halilu, the judge, held that the bank breached its “duty of care to the claimants,” the Omales and their church.
The judgment was on the suit marked: FCT/HC/CV2541/2020 filed by Mr Omale, his wife and the church.
The judge held that the evidence before the court showed that the bank admitted error in its report to the NFIU of entries in the account of Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministry which was accused of laundering money on Mr Magu’s behalf.
Mr Halilu also said the bank claimed that the purported N573 million was wrongly reflected as a credit entry in Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministry’s account by its reporting system, which it recently upgraded.
The judge held that FCMB admitted the error, which brought incalculable damage to the reputation of the claimants both within and outside Nigeria – depleting their church’s membership.
Mr Halilu said the claimants provided sufficient evidence to establish a case of negligence against FCMB.
Consequently, the judge awarded N200 million as aggravated damages; N140.5 million as specific damages and N200 million as general damages.
It would be recalled that Omale sued First City Monument Bank (FCMB) for breaching banker-client and falsely alerting the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) of a suspicious credit inflow.
The defendant negligently breached the fiduciary duty of care it owes the claimants by its false automated report to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit of a suspicious credit inflow of N573,228,040.41 into the 1st claimant’s corporate current account,” the document read.
Omale and his wife, Deborah, said they were exposed to public hatred and contempt due to the investigation and negative media reports.
Adam Nuru, Managing Director of First City Monument Bank (FCMB), had told the Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets (PCARA) that the bank made an error of posting N573 million into the church’s account.
