Billionaire Femi Otedola, Zenon Petroleum Sue Zenith Bank Over Illegal Acquisition Of Shares; Demand Over N100bn As Relief

One of Nigeria Prominent Business Magnates and Group Chairman of First Bank Plc ; Mr Femì Otedola, has dragged Zenith Bank Plc and Jim Ovia, Chairman of Zenith Bank to the Federal High Court Lagos, not only for illegal and unauthorized charges in its account, but also for the illegally and forcefully recovering his shares in Zenith Bank.

In the suit No : FHC/L/Cs/425/24 dated 6th March , 2024, where Zenith Bank, Quantum Zenith Securities, Veritas Registrars and Central Securities Clearing System are joined as defendants, Otedola is seeking the court’s relief to make the following orders:

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1. An order directing Zenith Bank plc to refund the sum of N205,346,573 which was wrongfully debited on 27th January 2011 from the account of Zenon Petroleum Limited account 1010385211 plus accrued interest.
2. An order directing Zenith Bank limited to release, return, and credit to Zenon Petroleum limited forthwith their of Zenith Bank shares totalling (1,300,000,000) One billion , three hundred million shares being shares illegally stolen from Zenon in 2011.
3. An order of perpetual injunction restraining Zenith Bank and other defendants from further
   withholding, selling, transferring, trading and registering the shares of Zenon petroleum limited.
4. An order directing Zenith Bank plc and the co-defendants jointly and severally to pay and or remitnthe total sum of N88 Billion being unpaid dividends accrued on the shares of Zenon limited illegallynrecovered by Zenith Bank plc from 2011 to date.
5. An order directing the defendants jointly and
   severally to pay accrued interest at the rate of 10 percent per annum on the sum of N88 Billion from April 18th, 2012 until judgement is delivered.
6. An order directing the defendants to refund any wrongful debits and pay the plaintiff accrued and unpaid dividends on the account and shareholding of Zenon Petroleum to determined by an independent audit firm.
7. The Plaintiff also requested the court to grant it damages of N800 million.

Authoritative sources within Zenon Petroleum limited informed our reporter that Zenith Bank plc has made entreaties to Zenon seeking an out of Court settlement, but Zenon has refused; insisting that it would prefer a Judicial pronouncement given that Zenith Bank plc is known as an institution that has penchant for illegally tampering with customers account.

The source also confirmed that investigations are on to determine whether Jim Ovia was the eventual beneficiary of the shares illegally recovered from Zenon and how Jim Ovia
paid for the shares, which is believed , may have beer recovered without payment for them.