The Supreme Courtroom of Nigeria has ordered Fidelity Bank Plc to pay ₦225.3 billion in damages to Sagecom Idea Restricted, an Ibadan-based firm, following a years-long authorized dispute over wrongful property gross sales.
The judgment, delivered on April 11, 2025, marks one of many largest {financial} liabilities imposed on a Nigerian {bank} in latest historical past.
The apex courtroom upheld earlier rulings that discovered Fidelity Bank responsible of contempt and wrongful sale of properties regardless of an current courtroom injunction.
Following the ruling, Fidelity Bank has entered negotiations with Sagecom’s authorized crew to construction a reimbursement plan.
Nonetheless, insiders say the courtroom’s demand for speedy compliance threatens the {bank}’s {financial} stability.
“That is the most important disaster the {bank} has ever confronted,” a senior official advised Folks’s Gazette on situation of anonymity. “If the {bank} survives this, it will likely be because of the goodwill of the small enterprise that gained this judgment.”
Regardless of robust {financial} showings—together with a ₦385 billion pre-tax revenue in 2024 and a 140% surge in share worth this 12 months—analysts warn that a lot of Constancy’s earnings are tied to rolled-over loans, elevating issues about liquidity.
No main {financial} establishment has supplied to underwrite the legal responsibility, and sources point out the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) might must step in to keep away from the collapse of a significant participant within the nation’s banking sector.
The case stems from loans issued by FSB Worldwide {Bank} to G. Cappa Plc within the early 2000s—$3 million and ₦100 million—secured with property collateral in Ikoyi and Ibadan.
Fidelity Bank inherited the loans and obligations after buying FSB through the 2005 banking consolidation.
When G. Cappa allegedly defaulted, Constancy moved to grab and promote the collateral, ignoring a courtroom order to halt such gross sales.
Sagecom Idea Ltd bought a few of the properties in 2007 for ₦350 million, solely to later uncover a 2006 courtroom ruling that barred any such transaction.
Sagecom, co-founded by Bamidele Ogunkanmi and U.S.-based Dakore Miriki, sued to get better its funding and damages, accusing Constancy of defying courtroom authority.
The case travelled by a number of courtroom ranges earlier than reaching the Supreme Courtroom in 2018.
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The apex courtroom, in a unanimous ruling by a five-justice panel, affirmed Constancy’s legal responsibility.
Justice Adamu Jauro, who delivered the lead judgment, mentioned permitting Constancy to flee accountability “could be tantamount to permitting it to learn from its personal incorrect.”
Justice Jummai Hannatu Sankey described the {bank}’s actions as “a deliberate disregard” for the judiciary and Sagecom’s property rights.
The Lagos Excessive Courtroom initially dominated in 2011 that Constancy owed Sagecom for lack of rental earnings from the seized properties.
That judgment was lately up to date by Justice Olabisi Akinlade to $139 million—or ₦225.3 billion on the Could 15 change charge of ₦1,620 to the greenback.
Constancy is anticipated to problem the ultimate computation in a listening to set for Could 19, however sources say any important adjustments are unlikely.
The choose has said that the ultimate payout will replicate the change charge on the precise date of fee.
Fidelity Bank, Nigeria’s sixth-largest by property and led by its first feminine CEO, Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe, has confronted rising criticism for its aggressive mortgage restoration practices.
In a latest case, a Lagos household accused the {bank} of taking part in a job in an actual property investor’s loss of life linked to a mortgage dispute.
Whereas the {bank} has maintained its innocence and sometimes blames regulatory strain from the CBN for its hardline stance, the central {bank} has not publicly addressed the present state of affairs.
Constancy’s authorized crew, together with outstanding Senior Advocates Kanu Agabi and Onyechi Ikpeazu, has declined to remark.
