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Zenith Bank: Justice Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe Issues Certified True Copy (CTC) of Judgment, Calls Out Fake Report.
Zenith Bank: Justice Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe Issues Certified True Copy (CTC) of Judgment, Calls Out Fake Report.
Zenith Bank: Justice Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe Issues Certified True Copy (CTC) of Judgment, Calls Out Fake Report.
Zenith Bank
Contrary to the widely reported fake news by some faceless online news platform that Justice Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe of the Ikeja Special Offences Court in his recent judgment allegedly accused foremost financial management in Nigeria, Zenith Bank of fraud and bribery, the astute judge who is bitter with such report have released the original certified True Copy.
In the original certified True Copy, it was confirmed that the respectable Justice never said something of such while delivering her judgment.
According to Justice Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe, all that the online media platforms said she delivered, were all fake and wondered how and where they got their own reports.
The certified True Copy (CTC) of the judgment is now in the open for anyone to see.
These online platforms had reported that the Justice accused Zenith Bank Plc of bribing both the judges and lawyers for 11 years to pervert justice, with several online media outlets alleging that Justice Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe made the claim on Tuesday, March 8, 2022, while delivering judgment in a suit marked LD/ADR/186/2014 between Real Integrated and Hospitality Limited as claimant and Zenith Bank Plc and State Universal Basic Education (SUBEB) as first and second defendants respectively.
One such publication quotes the judge as saying “My recommendation is that Zenith Bank is a fraud and people must be very careful in their dealings with the bank.”
Some of the other quotes read: “Zenith Bank bribed the lawyers in the matter.
“This they have done for 11 years. So many lawyers and judges have been bribed in this matter just perverting justice. What is more embarrassing, the current governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele was the one who came to navigate and begged for the deposit. He has not been able to do anything to Zenith Bank because he was the managing director of the bank at the time of this transaction.”
However, nowhere in the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the judgment that was made available to credible news platforms showed that the Judge did not make such statements.
While the Judge did make a scathing criticism of the bank, Justice Fadipe did not accuse Zenith bank of bribing judges and lawyers for 11 years to fraudulently alter the course of justice, as claimed by the online mediums.
There was also no mention of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele in the CTC of the judgment.
The judge’s comments, as contained in the judgment, include: “The 1st defendant has been the beneficiary of the malevolent game of chess it plunged both claimant and the 2nd defendant into, holding the sum of N872,780,552.84 in its custody without paying interest thereon from 17th February 2011 until 2nd February 2016 when the Court ordered that the money be paid into an interest yielding account in the names of the claimant and the 2nd defendant pending determination of the suit, which order was curiously varied by the consent of all the parties on 20th September 2016 so that the money remained in the 1st defendant’s custody without interest.
“The act of the 1st defendant was unconscionable and detrimental to the goodwill of the claimant and its trade credit with its customers. It was a deliberate and malicious act against the interest of the claimant and the 1st defendant continues to enjoy the largesse in bad faith. Exhibits C4 and C5 clearly state that the funds to be transferred were to offset part of the claimant’s indebtedness for the importation of dictionaries, but the 1st defendant was impervious to this need. I, therefore, find and hold that the claimant is entitled to substantial damages against the 1st defendant for the injury caused to it.”
The judge made the comments while granting the claimants four reliefs.
