By Abiola Olawale
A former employee of First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Adesuwa Ezenwa, has initiated legal action against a business mogul and billionaire industrialist, Oba Otudeko, for alleged massive fraud during his time as chairman of FBN Holdings Plc, the parent company of the First Bank.
Ezenwa who said she joined the bank on 27 May 2002 and rose to become a relationship manager in the corporate banking division of First Bank, revealed that she was sacked in October 2016.
According to court documents filed before the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Lagos Judicial Division, Ezenwa claimed she was sacked “without any reason whatsoever being offered.”
She said she is seeking redress for the termination of her appointment. The former First Bank staffer is, among other reliefs, demanding five hundred million naira in damages and twenty-five million naira in legal costs.
Ezenwa, in the lawsuit, alleged that First Bank’s credit disciplinary committee made her bear the brunt of granting unsecured loan facilities worth billions of naira to companies in which Otudeko had substantial investments, while her superiors who approved and granted the credit were not so penalised.
She claimed that she worked under the supervision of Abiodun Olatunji, her branch manager at the Adetokunbo Ademola Street, Victoria Island Branch of the bank, and her group head, Cecilia Majekodunmi, at the time the unsecured loan facilities were approved.
According to her, “unsecured facilities” worth about N12 billion were “granted to a company in which Oba Otudeko has substantial investment”.
However, the “loan was camouflaged as loans granted to the Stallion Group of Companies, which at a point in time discovered this false entry in its statement of account and protested same”.
An unsecured credit facility is a loan granted to businesses without the requirement of collateral.
In another instance, she said, an “unsecured facility” of N2 billion was granted in 2012 to Broadwaters Resources Company Nigeria Ltd, which she said turned out to be a mere conduit pipe employed by Majekodunmi and Onasanya “for siphoning monies from the bank”.
“Out of the N12 billion camouflaged as lending to the Stallion Group, N8.21 billion was transferred through various accounts to a final destination account belonging to a company known as V-TECH LTD, which belongs to the chairman of FBN Holdings, Oba Otudeko, while the sum of N4.45 billion out of the same fictitious facility was transferred to Ontario Oil and Gas. The facility remains unpaid to date,” Mrs Ezenwa said in court fillings.
According to her, several similar loans were granted by Mr Olatunji and Mrs Majekodunmi, including to Supplies and Services Limited, which were “subsequently disbursed in smaller bits to several customers on more profitable terms to both officers.”
Swap Technologies and Telecomms Plc, Orbit Cargo, Netconstruct Nigeria Limited, and High-Performance Distributions Limited were among the companies named as beneficiaries of the loan disbursement.
Ezenwa disclosed that such loans could not have been granted without the involvement of the board of First Bank, considering that the amounts involved were huge and above the approval limits of the executive directors, the vice president and the managing director of the bank.
According to the complainant, her dismissal by the bank brought her into disrepute, threatening her chances of securing employment in reputable companies in future.
“The action of the defendant (First Bank) has consequently caused the claimant untold mental distress and is all the more damaging as the claimant is in her thirties and has simply been made a scapegoat for the malfeasance of some of the lapses of the management of the bank,” she said.
Among other demands, Mrs Ezenwa is urging the court to declare that there was no basis for the bank to terminate her appointment.
