A National Industrial Court sitting in Lagos has ordered a second-generation bank to pay N1.086 billion being judgment debt into the account of the Chief Registrar of the National Industrial Court, pending the hearing and determination of the appeal filed by the bank against the judgment of the court.
Trial judge, Justice R. Gwandu, gave the order, yesterday while ruling on an application by Ecobank Nigeria Limited for a stay of execution of the judgment of the court which ordered it to pay the sum of N1,086,611,589.11 to 1,742 ex-staff of Oceanic Bank for alleged refusal of the bank to pay their Staff Savings and gratuities and on the application of the ex-employees.
The court had also granted an order nisi for attachment of all monies outstanding to the credit of the bank with the Central Bank of Nigeria and with all banks in Nigeria, for satisfaction of the judgment debt.
The court, yesterday, in it's ruling refused the application to stay the execution of the judgment and granted the order nisi with order that the judgment sum be paid into the account of the Chief Registrar of the court pending the hearing and determination of the appeal.
It will be recalled that following the suit filed by 1,742 ex-Oceanic Bank employees against the bank, who were denied their legitimate entitlements by the bank, the National Industrial Court, Lagos Division in a judgment had ordered the bank to pay the sum of N1, 086,611,589.11 to the ex staff.
Dissatisfied with the judgment of the court, Ecobank filed an appeal against the judgment of the court and an application for stay of the execution of the judgement.
The ex-employees, on the other hand, brought an application for the order nisi for attachment of sums to the credit of the bank with the CBN and with commercial banks to satisfy the judgment sum, for satisfaction of the judgment debt.
Justice Gwandu in his ruling on the application for stay, and the application for order nisi held: "Bench ruling read on motion for stay, order nisi is granted as prayed, stay of execution is denied." The court also held: "It, therefore, behooves this court to take steps to protect the integrity of it's judgment and see that the Res (subject matter) is protected even when the appeal may or may not be pending. I hereby order the judgment debtor to pay the judgment sum into the account of the Chief Registrar of National Industrial Court of Nigeria pending the outcome of appeal filed by the applicants."
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It will be recalled that in a representative action suit filed by Mr. Nwabu Okoye, counsel to Mr. Babajide Bayode, Yemisi Adesote, Adeboyejo Oladimeji, Seun Aina, Yusuf Kadiri, Segun Alasan, Adetayo Familugba and Lolade Olaribigbe, who sued for themselves and as representatives of 1,733 other ex-employees of Oceanic Bank now Ecobank Nigeria Limited, the claimants sought for the following orders from the court:
