Court hears Cecilia Ibru’s suit Nov. 13

Cecilia Ibru

A Federal High Court in Abuja will on November 13 hear a suit filed by a former Managing Director of the defunct Oceanic International Bank Plc (now Ecobank Plc), Mrs. Cecilia Ibru, who accused the Federal Government of violating the terms of her plea bargain agreement.

Justice Ahmed Mohammed on Tuesday fixed the date for hearing after he noted that that all parties had been duly served with the necessary papers.

The judge described the suit as a simple one which merely required looking at the terms of the agreement signed by parties in the plea bargain, which earned Ibru eight months imprisonment for fraud charges on October 9, 2010.

Justice Mohammed said, “This case is very simple. The plaintiff is saying that she forfeited property to the defendants as part of a plea bargain but that the defendants also took over companies not contained in the plea bargain.

“It is really simple. You all should be prepared for a definite hearing on the next adjourned date.”

The Attorney-General of the Federation and the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria are the two defendants in the suit.

Ibru had along with other plaintiffs in the suit, filed the suit asking the court to restrain the Federal Government, through AMCON, from seizing assets linked to her but were not contained in the plea bargain agreement.

The other plaintiffs are Sidochem Industries Ltd., Edgar Sido and Dr. Francis Sido.

Ibru, acting on behalf of herself and the Ibru Group, along with the three other plaintiffs, alleged that AMOCN had on November 12, 2013, mischievously obtained an ex parte order from the court without disclosing material facts in the plea bargain agreement.

The order obtained by AMCON from a Federal High Court in Lagos was against Sidochem Industries Limited, on the purported grounds of enforcing the plea bargain agreement.

But Ibru insisted that the company was not part of the terms of the plea bargain.

She urged the court to also declare that the striping of the assets and the subsequent sale of Oceanic Bank to Eko Bank was also not part of the plea bargain agreement.

She also urged the court to also declare that Aero Contractors Nigeria Limited was not on the list of the assets she forfeited to the Federal Government as part of her plea bargain.