By Abdulwahab Abdulah

The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, NDIC, said it had lost over N1 billion for settlement of judgment debts arising from litigations filed against liquidated banks.

The corporation also revealed that more than 1,000 cases are filed against it wrongly in different courts, only because it was liquidator of distressed banks.

The NDIC’s Board Secretary and Director of Legal Services, Alheri Nyako made the disclosure at a one-day “Sensitization Workshop organised for External Solicitors on Deposit Insurance Law and Practice in Nigeria”.

The Board secretary said out of the over 1,000 cases pending in courts, 95 percent of them relate directly to the liquidated banks, but lawyers only chose to join them in such cases wrongly.

Nyako said, “You see, the NDIC is a different entity from the banks in liquidation. When a bank is liquidated, that does not say that such bank is completely dead. According to one of the Court of Appeal judgment, such liquidated banks are still legal entity, which can still be sued.

“The NDIC is only acting on behalf of such liquidated bank and in essence, any claim again such closed bank should be initiated in the name of the bank in liquidation,” Alheri stressed.

In his keynote address, NDIC’s Managing Director, Umaru Ibrahim explained that the agency can only achieve its objectives, except in the support and cooperation and understanding of the law by lawyers who handle NDIC cases.

Ibrahim, who was represented by Hon.  Lola Abiola-Edewor, the Executive Director, Corporate Services,NDIC, added that the seminar was one of the steps being taken by the NDIC to sensitize the external lawyers on the need for collective efforts in addressing the legal challenges, which he said were important in ensring that the mandates of the Corporation are discharged efficiently and effectively.

Part of the problems confronting the NDIC, according to Ibrahim, include: “Excessive litigation, difficulty in recovering debts owed failed banks due to inability to trace debtors, lack of proper understanding of the distinction in the legal status of NDIC as a liquidator/deposit insurer by lawyers, the court and the public at large, among many others.  At the forum, lawyers also advised the corporation on how to go about its jobs in order to meet its corporate and statutory responsibilities.