Court Orders EcoBank To Pay Honeywell N72.2 Billion

By Adewunmi Adenekan

Ecobank Nigeria has been ordered by the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos to pay Honeywell Flour Mills N72.2 billion in damages.

The ruling was delivered by Justice Mohammed Liman, on Tuesday.

This brought an end to an aspect of the longstanding legal battle between the flour milling company and the bank.

 The legal dispute stemmed from a series of allegations and counterclaims between Honeywell Flour Mills and Ecobank.

The legal battle started in November 2015 when Ecobank obtained ex-parte orders from the Federal High Court to freeze Honeywell Flour Mills’ assets, including all its bank accounts.

This almost led to the suspension of operations of halted Honeywell Flour Mills’ business as the company was unable to fulfill its obligations to stakeholders.

The company was unable to pay suppliers, process letters of credit, and collect payment from distributors, thus endangering the livelihood of over 2,000 employees and causing significant reputational and operational damage.

After weeks of struggling to run a business without access to their bank accounts, Honeywell Flour Mills applied for discharge of the orders, with the court varying the asset freezing ex-parte orders and allowing the company limited access to its accounts.

In March 2016, a Court of Appeal overruled the ex-parte orders to restore Honeywell Flour Mills’ right to operate its accounts without any restrictions, stating that Ecobank’s application to freeze the assets should not have been allowed to stand.

After careful examination of the evidence and after deliberation, the court reached a decision, ultimately favoring Honeywell Flour Mills and granting all four reliefs sought, totaling N72.2 billion.