Court seals up Firstbank Headquarters in Abuja

The headquarters of Firstbank located at the Central Business District, Abuja, had been sealed up by the FCT High Court Enforcement Unit over failure to comply with a garnishee order. A garnishee order is one of the options open to a judgment creditor to enforce a judgment that has been made in his favour. It is a common way of enforcing a judgment debt and is solely used to enforce monetary judgments against a debtor to recover money. 

Officials of the FCT High Court Enforcement Unit stormed the bank (Coomasie) with towing vans and cranes and towed some of its valuables. Items carted away included stand-by generators, Hilux vans and air conditioners among other valuables. An official of the court, who spoke to NAN on grounds of anonymity said, “ it is a long story, but it is all about a garnishee order against the bank which it didn’t comply with.’’ Efforts to get the head of the unit and the bank’s officials to speak on the development proved abortive. 

Some staff of the bank, while reacting to the development, described it as embarrassing, saying it could have been handled differently. The bank’s headquarters in Lagos has also failed to react to the development, as calls and text messages put across to the cell phone of an official in the Communications Unit of the bank were not responded to. Most of the bank’s customers were seen in groups hanging outside the bank’s premises.