Ecobank Asks First Bank To Reject Oba Otudeko’s 4.7bn Shares Purchase

Ecobank Nigeria Limited has urged First Bank of Nigeria Holdings Plc not to approve the 4.7 billion shares bought by Oba Otudeko’s Honeywell Group over an alleged N13,507,052,417.99 debt owed it by th company and its promoters.

Ecobank, in a letter written on its behalf by its lawyer, Oludare Amusan of Kunle Ogunba & Associates, insisted that if First Bank approved the transaction, it would be equivalent to assisting in the diversion of funds and assets meant for the payment of the debt which the Supreme Court has allegedly affirmed.

The bank also, in the letter dated July 7, 2923, demanded that the management of First Bank should, within seven days of the receipt of its letter provides it with details of the status of the transaction.

Ecobank stressed that First Bank must not take any action which may be construed to encourage the subversion or the violation of the extant judgment of the Supreme Court, which allegedly mandated the Honeywell companies to pay their outstanding indebtedness, personally guaranteed by their alter ego Dr Oba Otudeko.

LEADERSHIP recalls that Oba Otudeko’s Honeywell Group last Thursday bought 4,770,269,843 shares of the firm in a cross deal worth N87.8 billion.

These shares, bought at N19 per unit, are the most significant volume of First Bank shares traded in a single day since 2012 when the stock exchange started publishing data.

The acquisitions take Otudeko’s shareholding to 14 per cent of the bank’s outstanding market value.

But in the letter, addressed to the chief executive officer of First Bank of Nigeria Holdings Plc, Dr Adesola Adeduntan, Ecobank claimed that it had instituted several lawsuits against Honeywell Group

Limited, Siloam Global Services Limited, Anchorage Leisures Limited, Honeywell flour Mills Plc and Dr Oba Otudeko at the Federal High Court, Lagos to recoup the debt owed by the companies.

The letter further read, “Whereas the prior-mentioned entities had initially disputed their indebtedness to our client and had

consequently filed an action in court to that effect, the Supreme Court on the 27th day of January 2023 in Appeal No. SC/CV/210/2021

delivered judgment affirming the indebtedness of the above persons to

our client and further commanded that they must pay all the outstanding debts that have accrued under the loan contract between

the parties.

“Which said indebtedness stood in the sum of N13,507,052,417.99, as of the 31st day of January 2023, whilst interest continues to accrue on the due debts as legally sanctioned by the Supreme Court of Nigeria, the highest court in the land.

“Instead of taking urgent steps to repay their indebtedness in line with the mandate of the Supreme Court, it has come to our notice that

Dr Oba Otudeko (being the prime mover and alter ego of the debtor companies who personally guaranteed to repay the said debt) has taken active steps to divert his assets/funds and those of the debtor

companies.

“Consequent upon the preceding crystalised facts, it is beyond doubt

that the actions being taken by Dr Oba Otudeko are targeted at

diverting his assets and that of the Honeywell Group of Companies

through the said Barbican Capital Limited, to frustrate the enforcement of the judgment of the Supreme Court against him and the

Honeywell companies, towards recovering his/their undisputed indebtedness to our client.”’