A Lagos High Court has fixed December 16, 2009 for ruling on a N200 billion suit brought against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) by four companies allegedly linked to wife of former chief executive officer of Intercontinental Bank, Erastus Akingbola.

Other parties joined in the suit along with the anti-graft agency include the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF).

The suit was instituted by Tropics Finance Investment and Company Limited, Tropics Properties Limited, Tropics Securities Limited and Tropics Holdings Limited before Justice Morenike Obadina of the Ikeja High Court.

Among the reliefs sought by the applicants from the court is an order granting N200 billion damages against the respondents on the grounds that they sealed the companies’ premises, confiscated some property and froze their accounts.
This action, according to them, had made it impossible to deal with their customers and caused great loss to them.

While arguing for the fundamental human rights of his clients, the applicants’ counsel, Mike Igbokwe (SAN), stated that the respondents are servants of the law and their actions were ‘arbitrary and oppressive’ contrary to the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution, 1999. He urged the court to award exemplary damages to them in the sum of N50 billion for each of the four companies.

According to the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, the EFCC alleged that some monies were transferred from Intercontinental Bank to the companies’ account but there was no evidence to show that that there was such movement of money.