FirstBank Customers, Staff Count Losses As Court Seals Up Abuja Headquarters

• Over Garnishee Order

Customers and staff of the Firstbank headquarters, located in the Central Business Area (CBA) of Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), are still counting their losses following the seal-up order slammed on the bank’s premises by the FCT High Court on Thursday morning.

Unable to gain access to transact business for the day, the staff and customers were seen openly lamenting their plight as the Court Enforcement Unit dutifully carried out the order over the bank’s failure to comply with a garnishee order against it.

Visibly frustrated at the ugly development as they hung outside the bank’s premises in small groups, some of them described the situation as hugely embarrassing, insisting that the bank’s management should have been proactive and moved quickly to address it before things went out of hand.

One of them confided in our correspondent that besides the disappointment of being unable to meet customers’ needs, the order has inflicted huge financial losses on the bank and this could have been avoided if things were handled differently.

Officials of the FCT High Court Enforcement Unit, who stormed the Coomasie House office of the bank at Plot No. 777, Muhammadu Buhari Way, CBA, Abuja, with towing vans and cranes, were seen carting away some valuable items including stand-by generators, Hilux vans, and air conditioners among others.

An official of the court, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on condition of anonymity said, “It is a long story, but it is all about a garnishee order against the bank which it didn’t comply with.’’

However, efforts to get the Branch Manager or any of the bank’s officials to speak on the development proved abortive as they claimed that no one has received authorization to make any comment.

So far, there has been no official reaction to the seal-up order from the bank’s headquarters in Lagos as calls and text messages sent to the cell phone of an official in the public affairs and Communications Unit of the bank did not receive any response.

A garnishee order is one of the options open to a judgment creditor to enforce a judgment that has been made in his or her favour. It is a common form of enforcing a judgment debt and is solely used to enforce monetary judgments against a debtor to recover money. – With NAN reports