►An internationally acclaimed building and civil engineering construction company, Bulet International (Nig) Ltd and its Chief Executive, Alhaji Ismaila Isa, have instituted a N100 billion libel suit against Unity Bank Plc.
►In the suit which was entered before a high court of the Federal Capital Territory, Unity Bank was said to have tarnished the public image of both the company and its Chief Executive by falsely claiming that the construction company was indebted to it to the tune of N6.856 billion.
►In the suit which was entered before a high court of the Federal Capital Territory, Unity Bank was said to have tarnished the public image of both the company and its Chief Executive by falsely claiming that the construction company was indebted to it to the tune of N6.856 billion.
Whereas the company sued as the 1st plaintiff, Alhaji Isa who was a former Minister of Water Resources and erstwhile President of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria, is the 2nd plaintiff in the matter.
In a 17-paragraph statement of claims entered before the court, the plaintiffs maintained that the bank, through its “defamatory and malicious publication,” portrayed the construction firm as a rogue company and a failed enterprise.
The plaintiffs told the court that Unity Bank never granted them any N6.8 billion credit facility as it claimed.
It averred that trouble started when in 2013 Unity Bank commenced debt recovery actions against Bulet at the FCT High Court and the case was dismissed on February 24, 2014 for lack of reasonable cause of action.
While the said suit was pending, Unity Bank through its Lawyer I. H. Yamah wrote false and malicious letters to Bulets’ tenants and clients, including the Federal Ministry of Finance, CBN, Australian and American Embassies as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, conveying an auction sale notice (threatening to sell the property being occupied by the tenants).
The plaintiffs said that the defamatory publications were false, malicious and baseless and calculated to mislead the public.
In the said offensive letters, Unity Bank alleged that it loaned the plaintiff N6.856 billion, adding that the bank was in possession of perfected legal mortgage over the landed property occupied by the tenants, warning them not to have any commitments to their landlord.
The bank, this year, also instituted another suit which is still pending in court and is being challenged by Bulet for non-disclosure of reasonable cause of action, in which ruling has been fixed for February 2015.
The plaintiffs said that while awaiting the ruling, the bank went ahead again to publish public notices and articles in numerous newspapers as well as on its internet outlets, specifically addressed to the CBN, containing list of alleged debtors of which plaintiff’s names were falsely and maliciously added. According to the plaintiffs, the letters, newspaper reports and public notices by the bank meant that the plaintiffs are bankrupt and irresponsible and took bank credit with intent to defraud the bank.
The plaintiffs said that the letters and public notices were understood by the public that Unity Bank gave N6.8 billion credit facilities and was in custody of perfected mortgage instruments which exposed the plaintiffs’s tenants to auction sale of their home and offices.
