The former owners of the bank filed a case to prevent Mr Amanor Dodoo from taking over their assets after the receiver started to retrieve and preserve all properties of the defunct bank.
One such property is an office building located in East Ridge which is currently being occupied by Topp Core Security Limited.
The receiver served the occupants of the building a notice to vacate the premises but the former bank owners took the issue to court praying that the receiver be prevented from evicting the tenants.
But the court presided by Eric K. Baffuor, ruled that the former owners did not show sufficiently how the receiver’s decision to take over the property will affect them [owners] and the tenant since Topp Core Security Limited has not contested the eviction notice.
The court explained that Mr Amanor Dodoo’s is acting based on the Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Act, 2016 (Act 930) and that right is not currently being contested in any suit before him.
Justice Baffuor said that even though there is an ongoing arbitration on the revocation of Unibank’s license, Mr Amanor Dodoo is not a party to that and therefore cannot be prohibited from performing his functions.
He added that if the arbitration is successful, the assets will be given back to the bank because the receiver is only acting on behalf of the former owners and directors of Unibank.
This ruling will possibly give Mr Amanor Dodoo, who is acting as receiver not just for Unibank but Construction Bank, The Royal Bank, Beige Bank, and Sovereign Bank, the power to take over properties belonging to these former banks.
The Bank of Ghana revoked the licences of nine banks in its bid to clean up the sector. The BoG cited various reasons including capital adequacy ratio crisis, poor corporate governance, overexposure to related parties among others.
In 2017, the BoG approved for the good assets of Capital Bank and UT bank to be taken over by GCB Bank. Meanwhile, it appointed Vish Ashiagbor of Pwc as receiver to make the most out of the remaining assets.
Barely a year on the BoG revoked the licenses of five other banks – Unibank, Construction Bank, The Royal Bank, Beige Bank, and Sovereign Bank. Their good assets were merged to form Consolidated Bank, Ghana.
Some of the former owners have been contesting the BoG’s decision. Notable among them is Unibank which was owned by a former Finance Minister, Dr Kwabena Duffuor.
