A Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court has awarded a N540m judgment against the First City Monument Bank (FCMB) in the N5 billion defamation suit filed by Prophet Emmanuel Omale, Founder of the Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministry, Abuja.
Justice Yusuf Halilu, the presiding judge, gave the order on Tuesday.
Omale had filed the suit over the alleged false information that the bank passed to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) on a “suspicious credit inflow”.
Omale accused the bank of negligently breaching the fiduciary duty of care in its banker-customer relationship with his client.
The former managing director of First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Adam Nuru, had told the Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets (PCARA) that the bank made an error of posting N573 million into the church’s account.
The committee had accused the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),Ibrahim Magu, of using Omale to launder funds abroad.
However, the bank later clarified that there was a system error that affected Omale’s account, but no transfer was made.
In a letter to Omale, the bank expressed regrets and published a public apology in three national newspapers, as demanded by Omale’s lawyer.
Omale told the court that the false alarm and summons caused his name to be dragged in the mud in the media, which caused him untold hardship, trauma, and great financial losses.
He said, although the bank owned up in its letter published in three national newspapers, the damage had already been done.
In his judgment, Halilu awarded an aggravated damage of N200 million, special damage of N140,500 million, and N200 million in general damages, and cleared Omale accordingly.