Mayfresh Mortgage Bank Limited has petitioned the Chief Judge Federal High Court Abuja to restrain the Sheriffs of the Court from further unlawful act aimed at evicting the bank from its Portharcourt Office.
In the letter, Counsel to the bank Olu Omotayo Esq. urged the Chief Judge to direct the Sheriffs to “allow our client to continue rendering its’ lawful duties to the members of the public who were denied from accessing their funds today due to this act of illegality.”
Dated 24/5/2022 the petition noted that a branch of the bank was “unlawfully invaded on the 24th May 2022, by officials of Sterling Bank Plc, and the Appointed Receiver ABDULMAJEED OLORIEGBE disrupting banking activities and shutting down of the bank and at the same time ejecting tenants on the property with the assistance of Police officers.
“Sterling Bank Plc and the said Receiver were said to be acting based on the Order of Federal High Court Port Harcourt which appointed the Receiver over the property of a debtor of Sterling Bank.”
Omotayo noted that while the court order grants the Receiver the power to take over the property, thereby taking over the rights of the debtor company in respect of the property, that the Receiver must also acquire the liabilities of the debtor.
“The tenants on the property are to be inherited by the Receiver and if the Receiver wants to eject them it must be in accordance with the provisions of Landlord and Tenants Law of Rivers State.
“The duty of the Police in relation to the Order of Court in respect of this matter is to assist the Receiver to enter into the property but not for the Police to assist the Receiver to forcefully throw out the tenants on the property.
‘The Receiver can only eject the tenants on the property through the due process of law and an order of Court of competent jurisdiction.
“Our Client Mayfresh Mortgage Bank Limited is a yearly tenant and normally pays 2 years, advance rent to the landlord, so it is therefore illegal and unlawful for the Police to allow themselves to be used for an act that was clearly beyond their constitutional role.
“The said Court Order is not so wide to confer such powers of illegality as displayed in this matter.
“We submit that it is therefore wrong and unlawful for the sheriffs of the Honorable Court, in connivance with the Police and the Receiver to embark on the illegal and unlawful act of evicting legal tenants on the property.
“We urge you to take urgent necessary action as the circumstances of this case demands and restrain the Sheriffs of the Honorable Court from further unlawful act.”
