Founder of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), Pastor Mensa Otabil is barely perturbed about recent reports of a suit against him and 15 other directors of the defunct Capital Bank as he believes the facts of the issue will be revealed during proceedings in court.
Reports have emerged this week, indicating that 16 persons, mostly directors of the collapsed bank are being sued for mismanagement and breach of banking regulations which led to the collapse of the bank. The directors and shareholders have been accused of illegally approving loans and placing funds to themselves and related parties without the requisite collateral.
Commenting on the issue for the first time since the news broke, Pastor Otabil, during service Tuesday said the suit against him and the other directors of the defunct bank does not imply any wrongdoing on their part. According to him, the suit is merely an opinion that will be justified or otherwise as and when events unfold.
Though he maintained he is restricted in his comments considering the issue is before the court of law, he was hopeful that the court proceedings will be ‘interesting’.
“I know people have all kinds of questions and so on. I can’t explain anything to you because I’m in court. We will allow the process to continue and hopefully, the full truth will be known. There is space for people’s opinion but when you go to court you are not just dealing with people’s opinions, you deal with facts.
“It’s going to be interesting”, he added.
Speaking to his congregation, Otabil added that, “The only thing I want to say briefly is that when someone sues you, it is not an evidence, neither is it a judgement, it is just somebody’s opinion and there will be defence and other things so follow closely how things ill proceed and how they’ll end.”
“The last time I said God is good, people didn’t like it so I don’t know if to say God is good but I can definitely say the devil is bad, that can also be quoted.”, Pastor Otabil further noted.
Background
Pastor Otabil was the Board Chairman of the defunct bank, while the ICGC was named as a shareholder of the bank in the suit.
The suit was filed at the Commercial Division of the Accra High Court by the receivers of the defunct bank, Mr Vish Ashiagbor and Mr Eric Nipah, both of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
The plaintiffs are seeking to use the legal action to recover over GH¢837 million, being what they said were loans that the shareholders granted to themselves which remained unpaid. By their alleged actions, the plaintiffs said, the defendants “have breached their fiduciary duties under the Companies Code, 1963 (Act 179) and have caused serious financial loss to the bank’’.
The shareholders and the directors joined to the suit as defendants in the Capital Bank suit include the Founder of the Capital Bank, Mr William Ato Essien; Mr Oheneba Osei-Akoto, Mr Stephen Enchill, Mr Kingsley Atta Ghansah, Otabil & Associates, Mr Kwadwo Ayisi-Ahwireng, Mr Isaac Osah Thompson-Mensah and Mr John Kofi Mensah. The rest are Mr Edwin Obeng Donkor, the former Chief Executive of the bank; Mr Fitzgerald Odonkor, Mr Amadu Montia, Mr Kofi Kwakwa and Mr Francis Adu Mante.
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