News from the courtroom has revealed that all is not well between Zenith Bank and one of their best customers, Chris Oyakhilome’ s Christ Loveworld Christian Network Televison runs by Christ Embassy Church.
This respected house of God, Christ Embassy, has dragged Zenith Bank to court over fraudulent activities on their accounts running to billions of Naira on the part of the Bank which has led to breach of contract of trust and financial security.
According to the document obatined, Christ Loveworld Christian Network Television established by one the worldclass living faith church, Christ Embassy Church, for the dissemination of the word of God has instituted N3.8billion suit against Zenith bank Plc and one of its manager John Osajele over alleged unauthorized excessive charges, wrongful entries, and mismanagement of its accounts.
In a new legal battle via an amended statement filed in court by Chief Paul Omoijiade, Ministry of Church television said that as the bank’s key client, it runs four different accounts with the bank of the following way.
1.Christ Embassy South Africa Project account.
2.Loveworld SAT Telecom
3.Christ Embassy Loveworld Project.
4.Christ Embassy South Africa Project.
Meanwhile, the sole signatory to these accounts is Pastor Oye Oyakhilome.
The bank approved the plaintiff through these accounts the sum of N970million loan, but failed to avail them with the statement of accounts to facilitate proper reconciliation and determine the true liabilities of the Plaintiff to the bank in breach of Central Bank of Nigeria Monetary Policy Circular 42:3.2.7.(e) which provides: “A statement account shall be rendered promptly, to each account holder, minimally, on a monthly basis free of charge and shall include:
- Rate of interest on overdrawn accounts, the amount and the period, and, in details of operation of the account during the month.”
The Plaintiff executed an indemnity with the bank on the 18th March, 2011 wherein it was expressly stated that all written instructions for any withdrawal or transfers from the Plaintiff’s current accounts shall be on written instructions to be communicated to the bank through post or Email, thereafter the Plaintiff gave Email instructions between 2010 and 2016 to the bank to debit its account for the credit of several beneficiaries indicated on the mail.
The ministry did not give any instruction outside email instruction, but on 2nd of June, 2016, the bank wrote it that Loveworld SAT was indebted to the tune of N786million. The accuser disputed the sum and contracted an auditing firm to reconcile the accounts.
However, the review of the accounts by the auditor revealed excess charges to the tune of N696,337,434.00.
Therefore, summary of sum due to the accuser revealed the following:
A. Unauthorized disbursement: N696,337,434.00.
B. Excess Charges: N,9,556,721.00
C. Account Credit Balances: N297,507,096.00
Grand Total: N1,003,401,251.
The accuser stated that during the reconciliation of accounts, rev. Oyakhilome, pastor (Mrs.) Ose Oyakhilome, pastor Modupe Osideko and pastor Iruka Oedema were arrested on July 7, 2016 by the Nigerian police, Homicide Section of Alagbon, a Zenith bank report that the aforementioned people defrauded the bank.
The parties were also invited to a meeting on December 7, 2016 by the Inspector General of Police of the Federal Department of Criminal Investigation (DIG) of Abuja to resolve the litigious liabilities. At that meeting, it was agreed that the parties would meet to reconcile their accounts within two weeks and return to the DIG.
However, on the 5th of February, 2017 the Economic and Financial Crime commission EFCC invited the Plaintiff via letter through Ose Oyakhilome, Pastor Modupe Osideko and REV. Ken Oyakhilome for questioning with the head of CTGI/P at their Ikoyi Office., Lagos.
The accuser revealed that, despite the numerous and arduous demands of his statement of account with the bank, the bank had refused to provide the statement to the plaintiff and had debited the account without a warrant with the entries listed in the report verification.
The plaintiff argued that the Zenith Bank failed in its duty of care in acting deliberately and without regard to the following:
i. Charging and debiting the Accuser’s accounts with unlawful, excess charges and authorized debits thereby taking advantage of exploiting the Plaintiff and causing it to incur losses
ii. Applying the funds in the Plaintiff’s accounts arbitrarily and unilaterally without the Plaintiff’s mandate, debit the accounts thereby effectively frustrating the Plaintiff’s attempt to liquidate the loan.
The Plaintiff revealed to contend at the trial of this suit that Zenith bank and its General manager, John Osajele are liable to pay damages in the sum of N3.889Billion to the Plaintiff as compensation for the loss of income caused by the unauthorized debits and the excess charges by the defendants.
Consequently, the Plaintiff claims the following reliefs from the defendants jointly and severally as follows:
An order of the court compelling Zenith bank to pay the sum of N3,889,622,610.73 being and representing general and exemplary damages for the its breach of contract.
An order of the court for the release to the Plaintiff of the funds held in the following accounts:
i. Christ Embassy SA Project Account DSRA N15million
ii. Christ Embassy SA Project Call Account N248,710,500.
iii. South Africa Debt Service Reserve Account N25million.
An order for the release of the Plaintiff’s Treasury Bills of N8,796,596.00 purchased for the Plaintiff and accrued interest held by the defendants.
An order of the court for the payment of interest on the above sums.
An order that the income generated by the bank in the utilization of the Plaintiff’s excess interest and the unauthorized charges should be refunded taking into consideration the credit multiplier the reserve ratio, the value of money created by the bank with the excess interest and unauthorized debts.
A statement by the court that the manipulation of the EFCC and the Nigerian police by Zenith Bank and its manager would incite, intimidate, harass, arrest and detain Loveworld SAT agents, namely Rev. Oyakhilome, Pastor Modupe Osideko and Pastor Iruka Oedema, accused of false accusations for purely commercial transactions, are flagrant disregard for the rule of law and violate their fundamental rights as guaranteed by the 1999 constitution.
A court order compelling Zenith Bank to write a letter of apology to the complainant for mismanaging her accounts, in total violation of the instructions of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
