The Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered Mrs. Okonjo Udokanma, Chief Executive Officer of Fine & Country West Africa, to pay Providus Bank Plc the sum of $97,982.19, affirming that she fully utilised an overdraft facility linked to her World Elite Card.
![](https://thenigerialawyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/idrinstitute.png")
The suit, FHC/L/CS/901/2025, filed by Providus Bank, focused on whether Mrs. Okonjo accepted and used the overdraft facility under the account-opening terms and whether the bank was entitled to recover the outstanding balance with interest.
Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa held that Mrs. Okonjo voluntarily executed her Account Opening Form, agreeing to Clauses 12 and 23A–B, which authorise the bank to grant and recover overdrafts with interest. Her repeated withdrawals exceeding her account balance, the court said, confirmed full acceptance and utilisation of the facility.
While the court upheld the bank’s claim of indebtedness, it reduced the interest rate sought from 26 per cent to 10 per cent per annum until the debt is fully repaid, noting that courts will intervene where rates become “unnecessarily exorbitant.”
The judge also agreed with the submissions of Providus Bank’s counsel, Mitchel A. Aribisala, that Mrs. Okonjo’s consistent use of the World Elite Card and failure to dispute her account statements amounted to an acknowledgement of the overdraft facility and its obligations.
A related application by Fine & Country International Realty (West Africa) Ltd, seeking to lift a post-no-debit (PND) restriction on its account linked to Mrs. Okonjo’s Bank Verification Number (BVN), was dismissed.
Relying on the UK Supreme Court decision in JSC BTA Bank v. Ablyazov [2015] UKSC 64, Justice Lewis-Allagoa held that even where assets are not legally or beneficially owned by a debtor, they may be frozen if the debtor exercises direct or indirect control over them. Since Mrs. Okonjo, as CEO, exercised control over the company’s funds, the freezing order was deemed valid and constitutional.
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