Court strikes out Receiver’s suit against unibank

An Accra High Court presided over by Justice Jennifer Dadzie, has dismissed an application instituted by the receiver of uniBank, Nii Amanor Dodoo, which sought to retrieve from the 17 shareholders of the defunct bank, the repayment of a GHC5.7 billion debt owed the bank.

It was the contention of the Receiver, that the Defendants (Shareholders of uniBank) “have breached their duties as directors of uniBank Ghana Limited, and are liable for all the loss to uniBank Ghana Ltd .”

uniBank is one of the seven local banks that collapsed as a result of what the Bank of Ghana has described as “poor corporate governance and mismanagement of depositors’ funds.”

The 17 uniBank shareholders according to the action of the receiver are “jointly and severally liable for the repayment of the amount of GHC5,712,623,145 to uniBank Ghana Ltd,” a portion of the suit said.

The Receiver also wants the 17 shareholders to account for all “advantages, benefits, gains profits derived from or obtained by virtue of assets referred to under relief.”

The court in its ruling indicated that the fact that the Receiver, Nii Amanor Dodoo, even though has been so appointed, does not earn him the status of a Director of the Bank to have capacity to sue on behalf of same. The court stated that the Receiver ought not to have brought the application in his personal capacity since Unibank technically is still in existence because it had not been liquidated.

The suit should have been in the name of “Unibank in Receivership” and not in the name of the receiver. To that end, the application is defective and void and same is struck out, the court ruled.

Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, a Director of the defunct uniBank and its Founder, is fighting for an injunction restraining the Bank of Ghana from placing uniBank’s good assets and liabilities under the umbrella of Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited.

uniBank was one of five banks merged into the Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited, which is 100 percent state-owned after their licenses were revoked by the BoG. The central bank among others argued that the affected banks operated with severe capital constraints.