Dike Onwuamaeze
The Chairman of Innoson Group of Companies and proprietor of the Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company, Dr. Innocent Chukwuma, has stated that he is looking forward to the day when he would take over the ownership and management of the Guarantee Trust Bank.
Chukwuma said this during an interactive session with journalists where he disclosed that he used to have the best business relationship with the bank until the current managing director took over the leadership of the bank with ethnic bias and the relationship started going sour.
He said: “I am waiting for the time when the cumulative interest on the money GTB owes me would overwhelm it so that I will take over the bank. This is what I am waiting for. That is why I no longer disturb them. But I am assuring all the customers of the GTB that when I take over the bank, I will manage it better. So, they should not entertain any fear. I have not done any business that failed. I will run the bank better than its current managers.”
He added: “I used to be the bank’s best customer in the South-east when Tayo was alive. It is because of me that it opened a branch in Nnewi. But the managing director that succeeded him was more interested in tribal fights. I think that is why he is fighting me. But I have proved him wrong in everything he is doing. I have defeated him in all the courts that heard the case. What is remaining is for the bank to pay me what it owes me.
“The bank carelessly and wrongfully deducted money from my accounts. When I discovered this I took the bank to court and won. But the bank has not paid me even though we had gone up to the Supreme Court. May be the managing director is waiting for Nigeria to change its laws because of him.
“But the beauty of the whole thing is that the money is attracting interest at the rate of 22 per cent. I have no other choice than to take over the bank if it cannot pay me what it owes to me. The interest has been running at 22 percent for about 11 years now. And the bank management does not want to resolve it.”
Chukwuma added that the bank is wasting time change its name because he would return the bank to its original name when he would took over its management.
