Union Bank Plc. has been granted an interim Mareva Injunction by the Federal High Court in Lagos, which prevents Swift Networks Limited and its agents from accessing or dealing with ₦7bn in funds across 25 banks until the alleged debt recovery suit is determined.
After listening to Mr. Temilolu Adamolekun, counsel for the Plaintiff/Applicant, Union Bank, during a motion exparte, Justice Daniel Osiagor made the order on July 19, 2023, to safeguard the res in the suit.
Mr Adamolekun initiated the exparte application pursuant to Section 13 Of The Federal High Court Act, Order 26 Rule 1, 2 (1), 3, Order 26 Rules 8 (1), 9 And 10, Order 28 Rules 1 (2) AND 2(1), Order 40 Rules 1(3) & (4) Of The Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2019 , and under the inherent jurisdiction of the court.
Among the parties involved, Swift Networks was listed as the Defendant, while the banks were listed as the 2nd to 25th Respondents.
Among other Plaintiff are Access Bank Plc, Citibank Nigeria Limited, Ecobank Nigeria Limited, Fidelity Bank Plc, First Bank Of Nigeria Plc, First City Monument Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Globus Bank Limited, Heritage Bank Plc, Jaiz Bank Limited, Keystone Bank Limited, Lotus Bank Limited, Parallex, Polaris Bank Limited, Providus Bank Limited, Stanbic Ibtc Bank Nigeria Limited, Standard Chartered Bank Limited, Sterling Bank Plc, Suntrust Bank Nigeria Limited, Titan Trust Bank, United Bank of Nigeria, Unity Bank Plc, Wema Bank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc.
Justice Osiagor, having carefully considered the Affidavit in Support, the attached Exhibits, and the Written Address, made the following orders:
‘That an interim order of Mareva Injunction is granted restraining the Defendant (Swift Networks), its agents, privies and/or assigns or otherwise howsoever from dealing with any of the monies standing to its credit in all of its accounts, records or howsoever held with the 2nd to 25th Respondents and also its monies standing to its credit in custody of the Plaintiff up to the tune of N7,037,410,548.23 (billion) or its equivalent in any foreign currency.’
‘That an Interim order of Mareva Injunction is granted restraining the 2nd to 25th Respondents and their agents or anyone whatsoever from releasing to the Defendant or any of its Affiliate, any monies, funds or any other instrument belonging to the Defendant, to the tune of N7,037,410,548.23 or its equivalent in any foreign currency that may be or found in the custody or possession of the 2nd to 25th Respondents.’
As part of its ruling, the court granted an Interim Injunction that prohibits Swift Networks, or anyone acting on its behalf, from interfering with or dealing with any of its assets or properties within the court’s jurisdiction.
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This injunction includes all the assets and properties owned by the Defendants at 31 Saka Tinubu Street, Victoria Island, Lagos State.
The court also ordered the 2nd to 25th Respondents to ‘disclose on oath whatever sum of money that may be in their custody belonging to the Defendant for further direction of this Honourable Court.’
Justice Osiagor fixed September 27 as the date for the hearing of the Motion on Notice, subsequent to granting the Interim Injunction.
The grounds cited by the Plaintiff/Applicants for this Application are as follows:
‘In the course of the bank/customer relationship, the Plaintiff agreed to grant various credit facilities to the Defendant for several purposes.’
‘The Defendant failed to meet its repayment obligation(s) to the Plaintiff, however, by its letter of 9th November, 2017, it requested that its debt be restructured by the Plaintiff/Applicant.’
‘The Plaintiff granted the Defendant’s Application for a restructure and further availed it with other credit facilities. Hence the offer letter of 29th December, 2017.’
‘Furthermore, the Defendant failed to perform its repayment obligation arising from the offer letter of 29th December, 2017.’
The Plaintiff/Applicants maintained that, as a result of the Defendant’s failure to fulfill its repayment obligations, they restructured the Defendant’s debt through an offer letter issued on 28th September 2020.
It also said that ‘Under the offer letter of 28 September, 2020, the Plaintiff availed the Defendant with a term loan facility to the tune of N7, 674,292,000.00.’
‘It is also the clear agreement of parties that the source of repayment shall be from the cash flow from the Defendant’s business operation and other cash flow sources available to the Defendant.’
‘To the Plaintiffs bewilderment, the facilities matured without the expected receivables as the Defendant failed to meet its repayment obligation to the Plaintiff under the offer letter of 28th September, 2020 which was duly accepted by the Defendant.’
‘It is also the clear agreement of parties that any breach of the terms of the offer letter shall constitute a default and that the entire indebtedness of the Defendant shall immediately become due and payable upon such default.’
‘That these funds are certainly the rest of this suit and this court is urged to protect the funds in the very likely event that judgment is entered in favour of the Plaintiff and for such judgment not to be entered in vain.’