N8bn debt: Innoson insists Court judgement is against GTBank not Customs

The management of Innoson Motors has noted that Guarantee Trust Bank has lost all legal battles including appeals from the High Court, Appeal Court to the Supreme Court where judgments were delivered in suits between Innoson Motors and Guarantee Trust Bank without reference to third parties.

The management of Innoson Motors, therefore, debunked claims in a press statement purportedly released by Guarantee Trust Bank in which the bank said that the court judgment was not against GTB but on account of the Nigerian Customs domiciled in the bank, noting that no ruling had been delivered empowering Innoson Motor to take over the bank.

GTB had maintained that the court judgment was against the account of the Nigerian Customs Service board domiciled with the bank as an entity and not the bank, itself.

But Innoson Motors contended that such interpretation was short of the whole truth, insisting that according to the Garnishee order absolute, issued by the Federal High Court in Ibadan, the bank was specifically ordered to pay Innoson Nigeria Ltd, the judgment sum of N2.4 billion with a 22 per cent interest per annum on the judgment sum until the final liquidation of the judgment.

The company stated that GTB appealed the Federal High Court’s decision up to the Supreme Court and lost.

Innoson reiterated that from the Supreme Court judgment, the suit was between GTB and Innoson Nigeria Ltd without naming any other party.

A garnishee is a third party who is instructed under legal notice to surrender money to settle a debt or claim.

In a garnishee proceeding, once an order of garnishee nisi is made, the garnishee is required by law to set the amount involved aside and will not allow the judgment debtor to withdraw from it; and if the order is made absolute, the garnishee pays the money to the judgment creditor and incurs no liability for doing that but if the order is not made absolute the garnishee returns the money to the judgment debtor.

In the case, the order was made absolute on 29th July 2011 but Innoson said that GTB held unto the money from that time and is using for its business.

A statement issued by Innoson Group, signed by the Head of Corporate Communications, Cornel Osigwe reads: “It follows that by the time the order was made absolute it was no more the judgment debtor’s money but rather that of Innoson Nigeria Ltd who is the judgment creditor; if a garnishee refuses to comply with the order, then, it becomes a judgment debtor, as GTB has become in the present case, against whom execution of the order will issue. Therefore, there is no merit or force in the GTB’s press statement.”

Innoson reaffirmed that the Garnishee order absolute was against GTB and no one else; adding that only the bank and no one else should comply with the order.

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