Fidelity Bank Plc has explained that a subsisting Notice of Appeal has prevented it from executing the Garnishee Order Absolute (debt dispute) delivered in a ruling on January 11, 2022, by the National Industrial Court (NIC), Enugu.
This explanation comes as the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Employees (AUPCTRE), began the picketing of the lender’s branches to enforce the NIC judgment debt made against Fidelity Bank and another bank.
The Union had approached the National Industrial Court, Enugu for the enforcement of an arbitral award obtained by the Union against the Anambra State Urban Water Holding Corporation, and Anambra State Waste Management Authority, by way of a garnishee order against the accounts of Anambra State Government in Fidelity Bank.
However, in a statement early today by the bank’s Divisional Head, Brand & Communications, Meksley Nwagboh, said Fidelity Bank was constrained by the appeal made by the Judgment Debtors.
“As a law-abiding corporate citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, we are guided by the rule of law.
“Accordingly, where parties have submitted their process to the Court, such parties should follow the due process of the law to enforce their rights and not take the laws into their hands,” the bank said.
… Picketing is an industrial dispute resolution mechanism that is reserved for the settlement of industrial disputes. Fidelity Bank has no industrial dispute with the Union as to warrant the picketing of any of our branches.
It also recalled that “the Judgment Debtors, Anambra State Urban Water Holding Corporation and Anambra State Waste Management Authority, immediately filed a Notice of Appeal dated the 12th day of January 2022 as well as a Motion for Stay of Execution of the Order of Court dated the same 12th day of January 2022.
“The Union is aware of these processes as they were served on them. The motion for stay of execution is still pending and has not yet been heard and determined when the Union took the law into its hands to attack Fidelity Bank.”
The bank also noted that picketing is an industrial dispute resolution mechanism that is reserved for the settlement of industrial disputes, adding that “Fidelity Bank has no industrial dispute with the Union as to warrant the picketing of any of our branches.”
Accordingly, it maintained that the attack on the Bank by the Union was an irresponsible use of brute force on a law-abiding corporate citizen.
It also reiterated its commitment to the due process of the law, while assuring all its customers of providing them with superior service delivery.
