The board of Ecobank Nigeria Limited, on Sunday assured that as a responsible corporate citizen, it would allow the ongoing law suit with Honeywell Group over unpaid debts, to run its course, rather than engaging in undue media war aimed at swaying public opinion.
In a statement, the Nigeria arm of the Ecobank Group “vowed to strongly resist any attempt to use a frivolous N72bn claim to derail it from continuing to pursue the recovery of monies owed and overdue for payment.”
It noted that as a Pan African bank with representation across 36 countries, it continues to supports various businesses with the use of customer deposits held in safe trust, following which it is resolute that businesses so supported “honour their obligations when due.
“This is the crux of the demand on the Honeywell Group to pay their debts in full, stressing that the battle, which has spanned several years, is aimed simply at ensuring “that debtors fully honour their obligations after benefiting from credit facilities which helped to grow their businesses.”
Ecobank said it is unhindered by the continued attempts by Honeywell Group, including several media reports of a suit claiming damages in the sum of N72bn aimed at coercing the public into believing that the Honeywell Group has fully paid its overdue indebtedness.
“It is noteworthy that Honeywell’s recent claim for damages was published and serialised in the news media even before the bank was served with the court papers, which clearly elicits the ‘motive’ of a party owing huge sums of money. Indeed the purport of the matter is most curious especially as there are other pending matters in court which remain undecided,” the bank added.