By Mohamed Foday Conteh
Rokel Commercial Bank has on the 22nd June 2021 asked for a stay of judgment at the Court of Appeal after the same Court had ordered the bank to compensate Christian Ogoo with the sum of Le. 7 billion.
The matter was initially in the High Court. The then presiding judge, Justice Fatmata Bintu Alhadi, ruled in favour of the bank. Christian Ogoo took the matter to the Court of Appeal challenging the judgment in the lower court. After arguments, affidavits, and exhibits, the Judges had concluded on the 6th May 2021 that Rokel Commercial Bank should pay the sum of Le 7 billion to the appellant, Christian Ogoo.
It is against this backdrop that counsel for the bank, Osman Jalloh, filed an application for a stay of judgment with the belief that the matter can be addressed to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the country.
Counsel Jalloh in presenting his case relied on an application that he filed on the 14th May 2021. The lawyer said that the application is accompanied by a substantive affidavit supported by one Henrietta Kargbo on the same date. He also said that there is a supplementary affidavit to back up his application and argument.
Counsel Jalloh said that the substantive affidavit contains exhibits that lettered from A to T. The components of the exhibits comprised writ of summons of the proceedings, a copy of the defence filed by the appellant, copies of full-text judgment by Justice Alhadi in the court below and a directive from the Central Bank to operators of commercial banks.
Counsel for the bank said that he relied on the entirety of the affidavits which he believes conforms to the application. Counsel Jalloh started with a notice of appeal filed on the 14th of May 2021. He said that the notices raised serious questions of law for determination by the Supreme Court. He referred to the judgment between Richard Owueridu versus Beijing Urban Construction Company. The lawyer went on to lay emphasis on Exhibit R which is the notice of appeal regarding the judgment at the Appeals Court as he continued to put his case for a stay of judgment.
Osman Jalloh also said in his argument citing that the Bank of Sierra Leone had ordered Rokel Commercial bank to increase its capital by Le 85 million by the end of this year. He added that had his client paid the Le 7 billion, the said threshold proposed by the Central Bank would have been unrealistic. However, Justice Ivan Sesay said that such an argument should be supported with evidence of balance sheets. Later on, Counsel Jalloh presented a record of financial transaction as exhibit V indicates that the bank has been in debt but has however made steady progress over the years. He added that the judgment of the court has the tendency to incur huge losses to the bank.
Counsel for the respondent, Christian Ogoo, will argue the application filed by the bank on the 29th June 2021. The matter was presided over by Justices Alan Hallowell, Ivan Sesay and Komba Kamanda.
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