An Ebonyi State High Court, sitting in Abakaliki, the state capital has ordered the Executive Chairman, Maize Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria, Ebonyi State office and Eco Bank Plc to pay N10 million damages in favour of one Nzubechi Okoro for fraudulently using his bank details to obtain loan facility without his consent.

Other respondents in the suit are Mr Ebere Oji Odii, the Ohaozara Local Government Area Coordinator of MAGPAMAN; Mrs. Patience Nwabueze, and the Maize Growers, Processors & Marketers Association of Nigeria.

Okoro, a Delta State-based businessman from Ebonyi State had dragged Eco Bank (1st defendant), Odii (2nd defendant), Nwabueze (3rd defendant) and MAGPAMAN (4th defendant) to court after his Bank Verification Number was blacklisted by the Central Bank of Nigeria over a loan that he purportedly took from the Anchor Borrowers’ Scheme of the Federal Government.

In a certified court judgement obtained by South-East PUNCH correspondent on Monday, the plaintiff, in suit number HAB/169/2022, had averred that his bank details and BVN were fraudulently used by the other three defendants in connivance with Eco Bank to obtain a loan facility from the bank after opening an account in the Ezza Road, Abakaliki branch.

The trial judge, Justice Chris Eze, in the judgement delivered on June 28, 2024, according to the court document, held that the 1st and 2nd defendants (Eco Bank and Odii) in their statements of defence never stated that the plaintiff was a farmer as to be a beneficiary of the Anchor Borrowers’ Fund, instead, they had averred that “they were not in a position to deny or admit paragraph 1 of the statement of claim where the plaintiff categorically deposed that he is a businessman dealing on musical and electronic equipment/devices.”

The judge stated that the plaintiff proved that he never withdrew any money from the said account as against the 1st and 2nd defendants’ claim that he withdrew N555,531.82.

The judge averred, “The 1st and 2nd defendants left the evidence of the plaintiff completely unchallenged. All these are fatal to the case of the defendants. This honourable court then holds that the plaintiff proved his case on the balance of probabilities or preponderance of evidence as required by law.

“The plaintiff proved his case against the defendants, 1st and 2nd defendants having failed to rebut the evidence of the PW1 and the 3rd and 4th defendants having failed, refused and or neglected to challenge the pleadings and evidence of the plaintiff, despite being served with the plaintiff’s originating processes and hearing notices at all material times.”

Accordingly, the honourable court declared “that defendants shall jointly and severally pay to the plaintiff, the sum of N10 million only as general damages for the financial loss, embarrassment, emotional and psychological trauma and pain suffered by the plaintiff, following the blacklisting of his (the plaintiff) BVN by the CBN as a result of the unlawful and fraudulent use of his bank details and BVN by the 2nd to 4th defendants to obtain a loan facility from the 1st defendant and connivance of all the defendants to carry out their unlawful acts. (Text, excluding headline: The PUNCH)

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