The Government of Imo State has issued a 14 day ultimatum to Zenith Bank Plc to refund what it described as inappropriate charges totalling N111.5bn.
The amount, according to the government of Imo State should be refunded into its account within 14 days.
According to a report by THE WHISTLER, the letter dated June 16 directing the bank to refund the money was written by the Governor of Imo State, Mr Hope Uzodimma and addressed to the Managing Director of Zenith Bank Plc, Mr. Ebenezer Onyeagwu.
The Governor in the letter obtained by THE WHISTLER recalled that the state had issued a demand notice dated December 6, 2019, which was responded to by the bank on March 2, 2020.
It said another letter was issued by the State Government on March 13 2020, comprehensively addressing issues raised in the bank’s response.
However, it said due to the failure of the bank to respond to the state’s letter dated March 13, a reminder was issued on May 27 which gave the bank up to June 3, 2020 to respond to the issues earlier raised .
The Governor said following the inability of the Bank to respond to this reminder, it had become imperative to take steps to recover the N111.5bn inappropriate charges imposed on the state by the bank.
In view of this, he said the State had decided to give the bank 14 days to pay the established liability.
Uzodimma in the letter threatened that should the bank fail to refund the amount at the expiration of the notice, the state government would not hesitate to take all steps necessary to recover the funds.