Zenith Bank has been exposed by The Group Chairman of First Bank PLC and a prominent magnate in Nigeria, Mr. Femi Otedola. He has dragged the chairman of Zenith Bank and Zenith Bank to the federal high court for two reasons: illegally recovering his shares and illegal and unauthorised deduction of charges from the customer’s account.
Mr. Otedola is seeking the court’s relief and to make the following orders to Zenith Bank. He wants the court to order Zenith Bank to refund N205,346,573 that was wrongfully deducted from his account on January 27, 2011, from Zenon Petroleum Limited.
The court then released an order that Zenith Bank Limited release funds to Zenon Petroleum Limited, funds that have summed up to one billion, three hundred million shares, and the three hundred million shares were stolen from Zenon Petroleum in 2011.
Currently, an order of perpetual injunction prevents Zenith Bank and other defendants from selling, withholding, transferring, or re-registering the shares of Zenon Petroleum Limited.
An order directing Zenith Bank plc and the co-defendants jointly and severally to pay and/or remit the total sum of N88 Billion, which is the unpaid dividends accrued on the shares of Zenon Limited illegally recovered by Zenith Bank plc from 2011 to date.
The court also instructed Zenith Bank and its defendants to pay off the interest rate of Zenon Petroleum Limited at 10 percent per annum on N88 billion from April 18th,2012, to the present.
The court order further instructed all the defendants to refund every wrongful debit to the plaintiff and to pay all unpaid dividends to the account of Zenon Petroleum for proper auditing.
Mr. Femi Otedola also demanded that the court grant him damages of N800 million.
However, reports have it that Zenith Bank has made entreaties to Zenon Petroleum Limited, asking for an out-of-court settlement, but Zenon Petroleum has refused your offer. Zenon Petroleum prefers their issues be settled in court, as Zenith is known for illegally tampering with customers’ accounts.
Currently, the chairman of Zenith Bank Group, Jim Ovia, is suspected of being the beneficiary of the shares illegally recovered from Zenon Petroleum Limited.
This sudden development has proven true, as most banks are responsible for illegally deducting funds from customers. Most often, people turn to do little or nothing about the issue. But with the rise of Zenon limited to exposing their deeds, many banks guilty of similar cases will be called to order.
The House of Representatives had asked all the commercial banks operating in Nigeria to stop charging excessive fees and illegally deducting cash from customers’ accounts.
The call came as the House unanimously adopted a motion by Godwin Offiono from Cross River at plenary.
After the call came in, the motion was moved to the House of Representatives by Godwin Offiono, a member from Cross River.
While presenting the motion, Godwin Offiono stated that most banks and financial institutions are also involved in unethical practices that inflict their customers with excessive charges and unauthorised deductions from their accounts.
He also mentioned that customers are complaining about excessive charges on their bank accounts by financial institutions (DMBs) that are constantly developing new ways of deducting money from their accounts.
The lawmaker acknowledged that bank customers also pay Value Added Tax (VAT) charges on all VATable transactions in their accounts in addition to stamp duty.
Mr Godwin also acknowledged that a part from stamp duty, costumers also pay VAT which are applied to almost all VATable transaction
Offiono said: “Commercial banks are charging outrageous interest on loans and overdraft at a rate that is higher than the agreed rate in the offer letter.
“The arbitrary increase in the interest rate on loans and overdrafts and increase in the other fees without notifying and getting customers’ consent, as stipulated in the Central Bank/Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) guideline.”
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