Court hears Ecobank, Jetland N31m suit March 12

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Justice Olabisi Akinlade of the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja
has fixed March 12, 2018 for hearing in N31m lawsuit filed against
Ecobank Nigeria Limited by a real estate firm, Jetland Properties
Limited.

The real estate firm, in the suit, accused the bank of breach of
contract in the sale of the bank’s property located at Plot 7,
Block 10, Layi Yusuf Crescent, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos.

According to the firm, the agreement it had with Ecobank was
that it would be paid five per cent of the purchase price of the
property.

It, however, claimed that after finding a buyer for the property
for a price of N525m, the bank reneged on the agreement and refused
to pay despite repeated demands.

The firm claimed that it was the refusal of the bank to honour
the alleged agreement that informed its resort to instructing its
lawyer, Mr. Dipo Okpeseyi (SAN), to eventually file the
lawsuit.

In a 35-paragraph affidavit deposed to by its Managing Director,
Mr. Jude Azekwoh, Jetland Properties Limited claimed that it got
the instruction to help Ecobank find a buyer for its said property
through its then acting Head of Business Services, Mr. Mohammed
Jalal.

Azekwoh said, “That in carrying out the respondent’s
instructions, the applicant deployed all its efforts and resources
in the search of a buyer for the said property as it is its custom
of business as an estate agent and had taken several prospective
buyers to the property.

“The first offer of N500,000,000 for the purchase of the said
property which the applicant secured was rejected by the
respondent.

“That after several months of painstaking efforts and contacts
with other real estate firms to find purchasers, the applicant, as
expected in its ordinary course of business, got an offer from
another real estate firm, Messrs Barin Epega &Co.

“The applicant then introduced the offer of the prospective
buyer of the property, Punuka Investment Ltd., to the
respondent.”

Azekwoh said upon finding the buyer, his firm wrote a letter
dated November 14, 2016 to the bank informing it of the N525m
purchase offer and the five per cent of the purchase price due to
it as agency fee.

He, however, said the bank replied with a letter dated November
28, 2016 stating its unwillingness to pay the five per cent agency
fee.

But Azekwoh said his company replied with a letter dated
November 29, 2016, affirming its entitlement to its agency fee,
which it then reduced to four per cent.

He said the bank did not reply his letter but rather
subsequently gave him a series of instructions towards the
perfection of the sale of the property, with the buyer eventually
paying N525m with a Value Added Tax of N26m that the bank confirmed
on December 15, 2016.

He said despite being paid, the bank refused to pay his company
the four per cent agency fee, which should have been N21m a
situation which made him to engage a lawyer for N10m to sue the
company.

Azekwoh, through his firm, is urging the court to compel the
bank to pay him N21m as the four per cent agency fee and N10m as
the cost of engaging a lawyer.

He wants the N31m to be paid with an annual interest of 35 per
cent from August 1, 2017 till the judgment day and 15 per cent
thereafter until the final liquidation of the alleged debt.

Besides, he wants N250m as the cost of filing the suit.