by Iyobosa Omoregie
The Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation is trying to recover an alleged debt of N34m from Doyin Okupe.
The NDIC has asked a Federal High Court in Lagos to place on the “undefended list” a suit it filed to recover the money from the Senior Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, and two others.
For those who don’t understand law jargon, an undefended list is when a plaintiff applies to put a matter on when he believes the respondents have no valid defence.
Okupe’s co-respondents in the suit filed by the NDIC before Justice Saliu Saidu are Value Trust Investment Limited and its Director, Mr. Ray Ahazie.
The corporation had filed the suit in 2007 to recover the alleged debt being the outstanding of a loan facility obtained by the respondents from Gulf Bank Plc in October 2000.
In a statement of claims by its lawyer, Dr. Abiodun Layonu (SAN), the corporation said the defendants obtained the loan from the bank to facilitate a contract to supply the Bayelsa State Government with 10,000 metric tons of imported rice.
However, after the rice was successfully imported on December 28, 2000, the ship was unable to berth at the Apapa Port in Lagos until January 3, 2001 because the port was then congested.
According to the corporation, even after the ship arrived at Port Harcourt on July 26, 2001, an unpaid agency fee in the sum of $155,000 prevented it from berthing.
The delay in the delivery of the bags of rice led to some becoming caked and some becoming stained.
As a result of this, the Bayelsa State Government refused to take delivery of the rice, after which Gulf Bank was forced to commence an open market sale of the goods and in the process discovering that a good number of the bags of rice were spoilt.
At the end of the sale, the bank was able to make only N454, 574,150 of the loan advanced to the defendants leaving an outstanding sum of N70,425,850.
The matter was referred to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in September 2005 where the sum of N196,642, 996 of the debt with interest was waived, leaving only an outstanding of N44m.
According to the NDIC, the defendants were able to pay only N10m out of the N44m bringing the debt down to N34m.
Consequently, the NDIC in its suit before the Federal High Court is seeking to reclaim the indebted sum with 21 per cent interest per annum till it would be finally liquidated while also asking that the cost of instituting the legal action should be put on the defendants.
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