Oluchi Chibuzor attempts to untangle the raging debtor/creditor case between Seplat Petroleum Development Company, an indigenous oil firm and Access Bank, explaining that a seemingly simple matter is being compounded by one of the parties
Before the bubble burst, Diamond Bank was one of the most talked about success stories in the banking sector, but bad debts, like the current one in dispute, saw it gasping for breath until Access Bank came to the rescue by acquiring it. Also joined in the suit filed by Access Bank was Kalu Nwosu, who reportedly issued a personal guarantee and a statement of personal net worth as security to the facilities availed to Seplat.
Seplat, thereafter, approached the Court of Appeal which ruled in its favour by ordering the immediate suspension of the injunction and interlocutory injunction that allowed Access Bank the freedom to seal Seplat’s property and control their accounts. The senior lawyer denounced Seplat’s decision to drag him before the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee and the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association for alleged gross misconduct and unethical practices.
“It is obvious that the petition is an attempt to blackmail me and avoid the payment of huge indebtedness of Seplat to Access Bank Plc and nothing more. “This particular debt was part of the huge debt overhang that sunk the defunct Diamond Bank and they don’t mind if Access Bank goes under for their sake too,”he noted.According to documents filed in court by the bank through its lawyer, Ogunba, it is obvious that Cardinal Drilling is a subsidiary of Seplat.
The bank has details of Seplat transferring funds into Cardinal Drilling’s account, which in turn would transfer it to Diamond Bank , as loan repayment. Seplat’s petition was submitted on December 18, 2020 while Justice Aikawa delivered his ruling on December 24, 2020. In the petition against Koku and Uwa, the bank stated that both senior lawyers engaged in acts unbecoming of legal practitioners and contravened well established legal principles in bad faith.