Ecobank Ghana HQ stops takeover by police after failure to pay GHS10M debt

The Ecobank Ghana Head Office in Accra was on Tuesday morning, July 21, nearly taken over by police officers who were there to enforce a High Court order over a debt the bank owes a private entity.

In a court order sighted by Citi Business News dated June 2, 2020, the Police was to provide assistance to bailiffs which includes Mike Agbemashior, George Tykhonov and Yury Shelkov to execute a writ in which Ecobank Ghana is commanded to make a payment of GHC4 Million Ghana Cedis with an accrued interest of GHC10 million Ghana cedis dating back to the year 2015 to Yuri M Plastics, which is the fourth defendant in the case.

According to the court, the order was as a result of a fraud committed against the plaintiffs.

It therefore indicated that the 4 million Ghana Cedis should be paid to the fourth defendant.

Per information gathered by Citi Business News, an official with the Yuri M Plastic products secured a loan from the Ecobank in the name of the plastic company.

Without due diligence, Ecobank approved the loan. As attempts by Ecobank to retrieve the loan proved futile, it secured a court order which permitted it to take control of the plastic company. With time, the Plastic company also sued Ecobank and demanded damages.

The court then ordered Ecobank to also make payment of GHC4 million Ghana Cedis to Yuri M plastic products in 2015, but the company says it is yet to receive the money hence its presence at the premises of Ecobank with the police following the court order to takeover the bank’s movable and immovable properties.

The Deputy Head of Marketing and Corporate Communications of Ecobank Ghana, Dr. Daniel Kassertwe, told the media that the action by the police was wrong.

According to him, Ecobank has filed for a stay of execution at the Commercial Division of the High Court.

“Our attention was drawn to the fact that there was somebody here with the presence of the police and armed men to execute an order. We approached them and realized that was a wrongful attempt to levy an execution, so we legally stopped them and we spoke to the bailiff and they left.”

Dr. Daniel Kassertwe however confirmed that the bank had been in court over the payments.

“Certainly, the bank has been in court with a certain individual who was not in court with the bank. He was in court with his own company and also the bank.  At the end of the day, the bank was asked to pay some money to the company, not the individual. We have since done that, and the court has fixed a date in October to take a decision,” Mr. Kassertwe sai