Access Bank Vs Seplat: A Tale Of Banking Hostilities
Strange things happen every day. Even the world of business is no stranger to unusual events. Deals fall through, companies sometimes fail to fulfill their side of agreements, which usually leads to disputes, and corporations get sued. None of this is new to the world of business. Nonetheless, one may still be at a loss when trying to understand the recent scuffle between multinational banking giant, Access Bank, and indigenous oil and gas company, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc (Seplat). The two parties have been in court since November 2020, after Access Bank listed Seplat and Dr Ambrose Orjiako, Seplat’s Chairman, as defendants in its suit against Cardinal Drilling Services Limited in a debt recovery campaign for the sum of $85,800,000.00 (Eighty-Five Million, Eight Hundred Thousand Dollars). Following this suit, Access Bank has since obtained an interim Court Order dated 23rd November 2020, by which it sealed Seplat’s Corporate Head Office located at 16A, Temple Road Ikoyi, Lagos, and took actions to freeze their banking activities. On the 24th of December 2020, the Federal High Court granted Access Bank’s application for an Interlocutory Injunction against all Defendants pending the determination of the case. On December 31, 2020, Seplat filed an appeal seeking a setting aside of this Interlocutory injunction, or a suspension of the injunction on the condition of Seplat providing a bank guarantee for $20,000,000.00 as security for the suspension of the injunction pending the hearing and determination of the appeal. What is so unusual about all this? You may ask.
