A former presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah, has petitioned the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, on the alleged N80 million debt credited to him by Enterprise Bank.
He accused the bank of impugning his character and the integrity of his family by putting his name and his wife’s, Zainab, on the list of over 500 bank debtors.
In the 13-paragraph petition of August 11, 2015, Nda-Isaiah said he would not sit down and watch a public image and a brand he built over the years be “undernined because of the incompetence and unfathomable motives of some people”.
He said in 2013, Banana Republic approached Enterprise Bank Ltd for a facility to expand its business into Maitama District in Abuja and the construction of a Five-star hotel in Guzape, Abuja, on a 1.4 hectare hilltop prime location.
He said while the loan was approved by the bank, the procedure was unprofessional
Nda-Isaiah said: “Even though owing a bank is not a crime, the fact that the term “name and shame” was what the bank said they were doing, I have been defamed and they have given an opening to a newspaper house (which cannot allow this kind of opportunity to pass) to further smear me and even add innuendoes that were not in the bank’s publication.
”Sometimes they even showed signs of incompetence. The breakdown of the approved facility was N67.5 million for the purchase of equipment and N12.5 million for working capital to operate the restaurant.
“Upon approval, our account manager opened an escrow account in our name without our knowledge and deposited N67.5 million and started charging interests right away from July 25, 2013, on the N80 million, without any form of notification to us.
“It was only several weeks later that we knew that this unusual banking practice had happened. We were not allowed to draw the equipment facility even though they had started charging us interest on the approved sum. The first drawdown of N18,647,500 in August was only allowed nearly one month after they had started charging interest on the loan.
“The next drawdown of N43,372,500 in September 2013, was only allowed nearly two months after commencement of interest charges to us. The total sum we were allowed to draw from the N80 million facility was only N61,920,000 even though they were charging interest on the N80 million approved”.
He said after the equipment was installed, the bank refused “to allow the company drawdown the approved working capital, which was to be used to operate the restaurant. Various letters requesting drawdown were not even replied to.
He added: “When there seemed to be no headway, I instructed the group managing director of our holding company to intervene, which he promptly did by travelling to Lagos, the head office of the bank.”
Nda-Isaiah said “the failure of the bank to allow drawdown of the N12.5 million working capital, which was part of the N80 million facility, complicated the dispute.
“Banana Republic informed the bank that they were not going to pay interests on the amount that had not been disbursed. Even as I write this, Governor, the N80 million has still not been disbursed to the company but interest charges are going on.
“Because there was a dispute, we stopped paying money into Enterprise Bank as their practices became similar to a Ponzi scheme or at best a strange strain of voodoo banking.
“About three months ago when communication was re-established with the head of Abuja operations of the bank, it appeared that we were at last making a headway. Because of that, we promptly paid in N5.6 million on June 3, 2015, into the account in good faith, pending the resolution of the dispute.
“We also agreed to pay N5 million every week for three weeks starting from last week to bring down the indebtedness as we expected them to pay the balance of the N80 million immediately and redress the voodoo interest rate schemes they had been engaged in since 2013 even before we started operating the facility”.
