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HomeNewsN2.5bn bank debt: Court freezes R.T. Briscoe’s accounts, assets

N2.5bn bank debt: Court freezes R.T. Briscoe’s accounts, assets

Justice Ibrahim Buba of a Federal High Court in Lagos has barred R.T. Briscoe Nigeria Plc from accessing its funds in various commercial banks in the country over an alleged bank indebtedness of N2.5bn.

The judge also restrained the company and its agents “from tampering with, alienating, transferring or otherwise dissipating or appropriating the respondent’s fixed and movable assets, properties, machinery, tools of trade or other assets whatsoever.”
Justice Buba made the interim order in favour of Diamond Bank Plc, which claimed that R.T. Briscoe, comprising Briscoe-ford, Briscoe Motors, Briscoe Technical and Briscoe Properties, was indebted to it to the tune of N2.5bn.

The court restrained the company, “its directors, staff, management, employees, officers, agents, privies or any other persons under the authority of R.T. Briscoe from operating, withdrawing or otherwise tampering with the respondent’s funds under whatsoever name or guise in any bank or financial institutions within Nigeria.”

The judge said the order would subsist until the final determination of the winding-up petition filed by Diamond Bank against R.T. Briscoe.

He also ordered all the concerned banks keeping custody of R.T. Briscoe’s funds to furnish Diamond Bank with details of amounts standing to the credit of R.T. Briscoe within seven days of the issuing of the order.

The bank claimed to have advanced credit facilities at various times in 2012 to the company to, among other things, augment its working capital and to finance the local purchase of fully built units of Toyota brand vehicles and spare parts from Toyota Nigeria Limited.

Diamond Bank, however, claimed that R.T. Briscoe “was still heavily indebted to it to the tune of N2,478,284,729.88 as of May 2016,” which it claimed had opened it to the danger of being sanctioned by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

“The respondent has spitefully rebuffed all entreaties and efforts of the petitioner to retrieve its third party-related funds, thus exposing the petitioner to the regulatory sanctions by the Central Bank of Nigeria and other regulatory agencies in the industry,” Diamond Bank’s lawyer, Mr. Kunle Ogunba (SAN), claimed.

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R.T. Briscoe has, however, urged the judge to vacate the interim injunction freezing its bank accounts and assets.

It accused Diamond Bank of “suppressing, failing, neglecting and/or refusing to disclose material facts” to the court before obtaining the freezing order.

“The interim order of injunction made by this honourable court on June 13, 2016 is null and void ab initio,” counsel for R.T. Briscoe, Abubakar Sulu-Gambari, contended.

The counsel told the court had the order had foisted huge inconvenience of his client.
“As matters stand today, no staff (for June and beyond) can be paid unless the order of injunction dated  13 June, 2016 is discharged and vacated. Same applies to contractors, suppliers and tax authorities,” one Michael Oladele, who deposed to R.T. Briscoe’s affidavit, told the judge.

He said the only thing that would serve the best interest of justice was for the judge to vacate the order as “the petitioner/respondent will not be prejudiced.”

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