Mr Otedola is accusing Zenith Bank of perpetrating banking fraud against him and some of his companies. He claims the lender controversially disposed of his shares in the bank, manipulated the company’s bank accounts, and forged documents to cover up the alleged crimes.
The businessman has also triggered litigation and police action against Zenith Bank, with the Force Criminal Investigation Department now probing the matter.
The battle between Mr Otedola and Zenith Bank began after the businessman accused his bankers of dishonest accounting in the computation of his liabilities before selling his multibillion naira debt to the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), an agency of the Nigerian Government, buys bad loans in banks’ books, aiming to pursue recovery afterwards.
Reliable sources with knowledge of the matter revealed that the billionaire tycoon turned to the court and the police for a resolution after the dispute became knottier, and efforts to resolve it and other related issues without legal intervention failed.
The technical teams of Zenith Bank and Zenon Oil met on 20 May 2024 to resolve the logjam, but the meeting was inconclusive.
Zenon Oil did not find the deliberations of another meeting held a day after at Lagos Oriental Hotel satisfactory and has threatened to launch a fresh legal action against the bank.
That was the third reconciliation meeting the two parties held this month, none of which has resolved the conflict.
“It is clear that Zenith Bank Plc is not sincere in resolving this issue out of court and as such a time-wasting exercise,” one of our sources said. “At this juncture, we have resolved to pursue our claims via the judiciary, law enforcement, the CBN and the court of public opinion as we know that our claims are very genuine.”
Zenon claimed its letters of credit that deteriorated into the problematic loan acquired by AMCON were opened before the corporation bought the debt in December 2011. Zenon ceased to operate the account the moment the takeover happened.
Zenon claimed Zenith Bank admitted at meetings that it controversially opened letters of credit after AMCON procured the debt, a practice an official of the oil and gas firm described as unprofessional.
A document listed the overdue amount on Zenon’s account at the time of AMCON’s intervention as N39 billion. However, Zenon claims Zenith Bank offered the debt to AMCON for N49 billion instead. After intense negotiations, AMCON paid the bank N44.1 billion for the bad debt.
Sunday Enebeli-Uzor, who heads the bank’s corporate communications unit, did not immediately respond to PREMIUM TIMES’ request for comment.
Neither did Ayoola Kusimo, the team lead for media relations.
But a top bank official had earlier told one of our reporters that since the matter is already in court and before the police, there was no need discussing it in the media.
When contacted, Mr Otedola confirmed his face-off with Zenith Bank over some unclear transactions on his companies’ accounts but declined to provide details. “We are still trying to resolve it,” he said. “If that fails, I can give you details.”
Another document containing the details of a meeting held by both sides on 20 May said Zenith Bank agreed to refund with compounded accrued interest rate the N205 million it wrongly deducted from Zenon’s account using a backdraft.
Seaforce Shipping Company Limited, owned by Mr Otedola, disclosed that Zenith Bank presented some bank statements claiming that Seaforce owed the lender N5.9 billion as of February 2024. The company added that Zenith Bank later abandoned the claim after it showed the bank proof that Seaforce’s account was in credit as of 2018.
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