A senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume has threatened to sue Polaris Bank limited for an unjust, unethical and oppressive banking conducts it meant out to his client Kenchez Nigeria limited over N868 million loan for procurement of a crane equipment.
The counsel, a former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice Imo State, also vowed to petition the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and other banking
regulatory authorities in the country about.Polaris bank’s “clannish unethical and arm twisting pull down the customer antics approach ,” except the Bank retrace it’s unlawful steps and release client funds for the purpose on which is meant for within seven days.
This complain is contained in a letter sent to the Managing Director of the Bank in Lagos on the refusal to release the sum of N868, 000.000.00 after the guaranteed firm LECON Financing Company had paid the sum to the bank and left a clear instruction on how the fund should be disbursed to the borrower.
The borrower a customer of the bank , according to the documents attached to the letter made available to the bank all the documents as demanded including legal mortgage of his landed properties in Port Harcourt ,
He also provides Insurance counter indemnity from the bank approved insurance company covering the total guaranteed amount of N902,720,000 besides several other conditions that were met .
But the bank refused to honour it’s own part on demand when the borrower asked it to paid for the procurement of the equipment.
Rather , the bank made move to pay a sum of N18,206,860 monthly interest on the loan from the guaranteed fund even as the borrower was yet to get the bank approval to utilise the fund despite letter to that effect that has been ignored.
Ume SAN said the bank refusal to release the funds after having taken both fees and collateral constitute a great breach of trust and contract , and it amount to unjust enrichment and oppressive banking conducts
The senior counsel is demanding immediate release of the sum of N868 million into his client bank account for purpose of procurement of Crane equipment or in alternative immediately return the total sum of N868m to Lecon Finance company..
The borrower is threatening to ask court for compensations on consequential losses and reputational damages occasioned by the bank breach including lost business opportunities and disrupted contracts, reputational.harm in financial and commercial market.