The Head Office of Ecobank Ghana in Accra on Tuesday morning, July 21, was almost taken over by police officers who were there to enforce a High Court order over a debt the bank owes a private entity.
According to a court order sighted by Vaultz News and dated June 2, 2020, the Police was expected to provide aid to some bailiffs to execute a writ in which Ecobank Ghana is ordered to make a payment of GHS4 million with an accrued interest of GHS10 million dating back to the year 2015 to Yuri M Plastics, which is the fourth defendant in the case. The bailiffs include: Mike Agbemashior, George Tykhonov and Yury Shelkov
The court indicated that, the order was due to a fraud committed against the plaintiffs.
As such it pointed out that, the 4 million Ghana Cedis should be paid to the fourth defendant.
Reports suggest an official with the Yuri M Plastic products secured a loan from Ecobank in the name of the plastic company.
Ecobank, not examining the loan request diligently approved it. When the terms of the loan was not being adhered to by the official of the plastic firm and Ecobank hit the wall severally trying to retrieve the loan, the bank secured a court order which gave it permission to take control of the plastic company. The plastic company also sued Ecobank and demanded damages as time passed.
The company’s suit was granted and the court ordered Ecobank to pay GHS4 million to Yuri M plastic products in 2015. However, according to the company, it is yet to receive the money. This, the firm says, is the reason why it invaded the premises of Ecobank with the police following the court order to take over the bank’s movable and immovable properties.
But speaking to the media, the Deputy Head of Marketing and Corporate Communications of Ecobank Ghana, Dr. Daniel Kassertee, said that, the police’s action was not right.
To him, this is because Ecobank has filed for a stay of execution at the Commercial Division of the High Court and the police should have known the existence of that writ.
“Our attention was drawn to the fact that there was somebody here with the presence of the police and armed men to execute an order. We approached them and realized that was a wrongful attempt to levy an execution, so we legally stopped them and we spoke to the bailiff and they left.”
Dr. Daniel Kassertee however confirmed that the bank had been in court over the payments.
“Certainly, the bank has been in court with a certain individual who was not in court with the bank. He was in court with his own company and also the bank. At the end of the day, the bank was asked to pay some money to the company, not the individual. We have since done that, and the court has fixed a date in October to take a decision.”
