SAN, Sanusi Differ on Bankers Committee’s Position on Ecobank, Honeywell’s Dispute

Festus Akanbi

As temper continues to rise over the contentious issue between Ecobank Nigeria Limited and Honeywell Group over an alleged N5 billion debt, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Kunle Ogunba, has dismissed the position of the Bankers Committee on the issue, saying its ruling which absolved Honeywell of further debt obligation to the bank is ineffective.

In an apparent response to a last week’s report, which quoted a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Lamido Sanusi Lamido, as saying that the Bankers’ Committee ruling had resolved the issue, Ogunba, who is the counsel to Ecobank, said it was preposterous for anyone to contemplate that a decision of a Banker’s Committee is superior to a final decision of the Supreme Court.

The senior lawyer argued that the Banker’s Committee is not a court, hence it lacks the power to adjudicate over the matter.
“Is the Banker’s Committee a court? Even at that, why did Honeywell file an action in court after the so-called decision of the banker’s court? If it had won in its eight years sojourn in all tiers of our courts, would it still seek refuge in the Banker’s Committee?” the eminent lawyer queried.
He further argued that Sanusi had a vested interest in the dispute, having worked as the chief executive of First Bank during a period when Oba Otudeko held forth as chairman of the bank.

He said: “I am of the considered opinion that the views of His Royal Highness Emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi circulated in the press must have been quoted out of context or outrightly misquoted since it is an intervention he ought not to have ventured into.
“First, his career trajectory which peaked as a Managing Director with Otudeko in the chair of First Bank from which vantage position he was appointed a CBN governor qualifies him as an interested/biased intervener!

“Secondly, even though, he might have a law degree, he is not a practising lawyer to my knowledge and in that stead, one cannot adequately contemplate an argument of a decision of a Banker’s Committee, in the wake of a final decision of the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land when it is considered that the Honeywell Group was the one who provoked the legal tussle, which they lost by going to court first,” he explained.

Sanusi had insisted that the Bankers’ Committee, acting as a consensus-based body, has the authority to make binding decisions for banks.
He argued that the dispute between Ecobank Nigeria and Honeywell Group over the alleged N5 billion debt seems to have been resolved as early as 2015, following the declaration by the Bankers’ Committee.

According to a report from the committee’s Ethics and Professionalism sub-committee, the agreement for Honeywell to pay Ecobank N3.5 billion as a full and final settlement was deemed valid and should be honoured.
The matter came up when lawyers to Ecobank wrote a letter to FBN Holdings Plc not to accept the recent acquisition of shares by Honeywell Group Limited because of the latter’s alleged indebtedness to Ecobank.

And in response to a recent letter from Ecobank Nigeria, lawyers representing Oba Otudeko clarified that the claims made about decisions from the Supreme Court in case SC/CV/210/2021 on January 27, 2023, affirming the indebtedness of their client or Honeywell Group Plc were false.
They further clarified that the specific amount of N13,507,052,417.99 mentioned in Ecobank’s letter was not part of any court decision or judgment in Nigeria or elsewhere.

The lawyers concluded that no court order has awarded such a sum as a debt owed by their clients, or any of the Honeywell companies, in favour of Ecobank.