State High Court 14 Yenagoa in Bayelsa has adjourned the case between the Maize Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria (MAGPMAN), Bayelsa Chapter, and Eco Bank Plc to October 10, 2025.
The farmers have alleged that the bank made unauthorized withdrawals from their accounts, leading to financial losses for them. They are seeking legal redress for the alleged financial malfeasance.
The aggrieved farmers are seeking legal redress from Ecobank over the bank’s unsatisfactory handling of their accounts, which exposed them to avoidable risks and losses.
When the case came up for pretrial hearing, the claimant’s counsel, Seimiekumo Avery, told the court that they have tried to go for arbitration but that Ecobank refused.
The court presided over by Justice Amaebi Orukari asked them to file for extra witnesses so that in the next hearing, the defendant can also respond and in the next adjournment, he can give an accelerated hearing.
The judge requested to meet both parties in private in the judge’s chambers for discussions.
The judge thereafter adjourned the case until October 10, 2025.
According to the court summons document sighted by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the farmers’ accounts domiciled with the bank on the Anchor Borrower Program of the Central Bank of Nigeria were run in breach of the CBN’s rules for the scheme.
The maize farmers are seeking a cumulative general and punitive damage of N68 billion.
MAGPMAN Bayelsa State chapter, in their grouse before the court, lamented that the fraud allegedly perpetrated by the commercial bank has left them with no choice than to seek redress, since the bank (Ecobank) refuses to listen to us in a way that would have resolved the issue.
Under the scheme, each of the 894 members of the group will get N182,461.02 and is expected to pay back N198,862.04 at the end of the loan tenor, but Ecobank as we speak is even deducting N400,000, N300,000, and N205,000, as the case may be, from the poor farmers.
