The Court of Appeal in Abuja has ordered the First City Monument Bank (FCMB) to deposit “in an interest-yielding account” the sum of N540 million awarded to Prophet Emmanuel Omale, his wife, Deborah, and the church for defamation.
Omale is the general overseer of the Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministry.
The money is expected to be paid into a bank account that the chief registrar of the court will open.
In a unanimous decision, the three-member appellate court panel, led by Mohammed Shuaibu, directed FCMB to deposit the N540.5 million within 48 hours.
The court gave the judgement in the certified true copy (CTC) of its enrolled order dated February 2, 2024, and obtained it on Sunday, February 4, 2024.
The appellate court gave the directive while granting a conditional stay of execution on the payment of the N540 million damages, pending the determination of FCMB’s appeal.
Meanwhile, the bank had appealed the judgment of Yusuf Halilu, a federal capital territory (FCT) high court judge, asking the court of appeal to set aside the lower court’s verdict on the sum payment.
The FCMB also asked the appellate court to stay the execution of the lower court’s judgment and restrain the Omales from taking steps to enforce the judgment in their favour.
After listening to the parties’ arguments, the panel granted the application as prayed in terms of the first prayer in the appellant’s motion, filed on November 3, 2022.
“Consequently, conditional stay of execution of the judgment is hereby granted to the appellant. The condition is that the judgment sum shall be deposited into an interest-yielding bank account of the Court to be opened by the Chief Registrar of this Court within 48 hours of the grant of this Order,” the ruling reads.
However, dissatisfied with the FCT high court’s judgment, the FCMB, through Wale Olawoyin, its lead lawyer and senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), filed a notice of appeal against the final judgment on October 5, 2022.
In its notice of appeal, the FCMB further argued that it would be highly prejudiced by any step to execute or enforce the final judgment as the action would render its appeal before the appellate court.
According to the financial institution, “there is a real and high risk that it would suffer irreparable damage if its application is refused and the appeal is successful.”
Opposing FCMB’s motion for a stay of execution of the lower court’s judgment, Goddy Uche and Kanayo Okafor, the lawyers representing the Omales, argued that the bank’s application was brought in utmost lousy faith to frustrate and delay without any justification.
“That the judgment appellant/applicant’s appeal has little or no chance of success in the light of the admissions and apologies and tacit acceptance of its negligence in this matter,” the plaintiff said.
“That in the alternative, we concede to a conditional stay of execution for the appellant/applicant to deposit the judgment sum within 48 hours into an interest-yielding bank account to be opened by the chief registrar of this honourable court in any other commercial bank, except the judgment/debtor.”
Background…
In 2020, the Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets (PCARA) said Ibrahim Magu, the suspended acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), allegedly used a cleric to launder funds abroad.
Omale’s name was reportedly uncovered during an investigation of the EFCC’s activities by the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU).
According to the report, the cleric bought a landed property worth N573 million in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on behalf of Magu.
The cleric, however, denied the allegations.
Regarding the investigations, Adam Nuru, managing director of FCMB, said the bank made an error in posting N573 million into Emmanuel Omale’s church account.
On October 4, 2022, a federal high court, presided over by Justice Yusuf Halilu, ordered the FCMB to pay Prophet Omale and his wife, Deborah, N540.5 million in damages over a false claim that they laundered N573 million for Magu.
