First Bank in Olisa Agbakoba’s Trouble over Mismanagement of Shares

The ancient ones said that the first secret to winning a war is knowing to pick the right adversary. In the case of First Bank with human rights lawyer, Olisa Agbakoba, one of them has definitely picked the wrong adversary. But which one? Africa’s first banking institution against a human rights lawyer? What a setup!

First Bank of Nigeria has gotten into a legal bind with human rights lawyer, Agbakoba. According to reports, the meat of the matter lies in the fact that Agbakoba allegedly kept some money with First Bank for investment and trading, and after more than two decades, could not retrieve this amount.

Then, came along a Federal High Court in Abuja which, after a period of deliberation, determined that it was First Bank in the wrong and that the amount of money received from Agbakoba in the first place needed to be paid back, with interest. This is why First Bank is waiting on the judgment of the Appeal Court to likely reverse that of the Federal High Court.

In a similar development, the same First Bank has reportedly been charged with paying one Abolade Bode the sum of 13 million. This time, the problem is the suspicion of fraudulent activity on Mr Bode’s account, as withdrawals were allegedly made on this account without the owner’s consent.

So, against these individuals, First Bank is reportedly requesting a retrial at the Appeal Court, perhaps a judgment that favours it might be delivered by the higher court. A date has been set for the case with Agbakoba, October 12, 2021, but nothing yet for the case with Mr Bode.

If everything continues as it is, First Bank would have to pay over 260 million to Agbakoba, and 13 million to Mr Bode. This is assuming another customer does not appear out of nowhere to ask for remuneration because First Bank had seized this or that amount from their account.