Unethical banking conduct: First Bank sues Igini over petition to EFCC, CBN

By Ihechukwu Sunday,

The legal tussle between the Fist Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Plc and the Broron Oil and Gas Company Limited over unethical banking operations has assumed a dramatic twist as the Bank has decided to sue the legal counsel to the Broron Oil and Gas Company Limited, Mike Igini.
Broron had approached Mike Igini Chambers to complain of how the Bank had cheated it through manipulations and some unethical conducts, a development it claimed had caused the company huge financial losses both in Naira and Dollars.

Igini had acted promptly according to his client, in this case, Broron Oil and Gas Company Limited’s instruction and petitioned First Bank and Central Bank of Nigeria, as well as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), asking them to resolve the alleged huge millions in dollars and Naira as a result of FBN’s unethical banking, which he said had almost destroyed his client, Broron oil and Gas Company.

However, investigations by SafeReporters revealed that rather than act on the petitions from Mike Igini Chambers by investigating and resolving the issues as demanded by the law firm, First Bank instituted a legal action against Broron in 2021, to prevent the CBN under Godwin Emefiele as a regulator and the EFCC as an anti-graft agency that has legal responsibility under the Act to investigate financial crimes, from intervening in the matter.

It was also revealed that the CBN through its Consumer Protection Department later waded into the matter by setting up a technical meeting that lasted for three days with representatives from First Bank and Broron Oil and Gas. The meeting presided over by CBN ended with a directive by the CBN to the FBN to refund all the millions of dollars and Naira withdrawn from Broron account under questionable and unexplainable circumstances.

From the certified true copy of the petition by Mike lgini Chambers, FBN concealed and failed to avail Broron Oil and Gas Company of its successful bid of $26.7 million forex from CBN for the purchase of operations vessel that it applied for through FBN to CBN as its banker.

The petition alleged that FBN instead lied that it lent Broron its own dollar for the purchase of the vessel.
Again, the petition noted that the documents filed in court, which were correspondences between CBN and EFCC showed that Broron’s application for forex was what the CBN approved successfully and not FBN dollars that was used to purchase the Vessel.

The petition lamented that this would have required Broron to use about N4.3 billion at the exchange rate of N153 to a dollar as at the time to purchase the approved dollar from CBN through its bank, but FBN allegedly concealed the successful approval of information from Broron Oil and Gas Company.

The petition further alleged that as inflow dollars was coming to Broron’s account from its oil services operations, FBN was wrongfully collecting repayment of the $26.7 million from the company’s account to the tune of over $32 million plus interest.

In another instance of the bank’s alleged unethical practice, the petition noted that FBN withheld a loan of $9.2 million grant from Bank of Industry (BOI) to Broron (the beneficiary) and was trading with. It further alleged that not only was the FBN trading with it, it was also using the dollar money from Broron account in FBN to pay the interest for over two years.

“The Bank of industry had to demand for the return of the money upon realisation that FBN kept the money to itself,” it added.
The SafeReporters also gathered that the EFCC is presently carrying out serious investigation into the matter and had been inviting the FBN and the CBN for questioning over several aspects of the petition that bothered on financial crimes perpetrated by the Bank.

However, in all of these, Mike Igini Chamber is demanding, “A refund to our client $135, 014, 238.06 wrongfully taken from our client’s account by FBN Plc; a refund to our client N3 billion and $10 million fraudulently diverted from our client’s accounts through various BDC; a refund to our client $1 million belonging to our client’s foreign partners, Total Marine Technology (TMT) wrongfully taken from our client’s account and a refund to our client $1, 800, 000 taken from our client’s account to pay interest on $9, 200, 000 granted our client by the Bank of Industry, which FBN unilaterally utilised and did not release to our client.

But instead of looking at any of the above demands, the First Bank, through its lawyer, Emmanuel Aghedo of Interllegal Partners & Notary Public, on December, 3, 2024, wrote to Mike Igini Chambers, stating that FBN was already in court with Broron Oil & Gas Ltd in Suit NO: FHC/L/CS/1280/2021 between First Bank of Nigeria and DSV Avianna, Broron Oil & Gas Limited, and that the letter from Mike Igini Chambers to their client, FBN, constitutes a threat and that FBN had instructed Interllegal Partners & Notary Public, to institute legal action against Mike Igini personally.

The separate lawsuit by the FBN against Igini, marked Suit N0: LD/ADR.5756/2025 – First Bank of Nigeria vs Michael Igini, is before Justice Okusanya of the Lagos State High Court, Osborne Division, Ikoyi Lagos.
Investigation revealed that the Bank’s decision to sue Igini in his personal capacity might be to prevent him from speaking publicly. “FBN is unhappy that a matter it has buried in court with unending adjournments since 2021 has been resurrected by Mike Igini Chambers.”

However, Mike Igini Chambers promptly responded to FBN’s solicitors’ letter, stating that Broron Oil and Gas did not mention any pending suit with the FBN and that in any case, the matters in court were civil, whereas there were criminal aspects to the issues that the EFCC was investigating, and that even the CBN in its reply letter on February 28, 2025, to Mike Igini Chambers explained their efforts as the chief regulator of banking in trying to resolve the impasse between FBN and Broron Oil and Gas Ltd.

In the written address before the court, the court is to determine whether FBN’s personal suit disclosed reasonable cause of action against Igini in respect of a letter he wrote as a legal practitioner on behalf of his clients.
According to the document, the issues being treated by the court include, “That the Bank’s suit premised on Exhibit B, Igini’s letter dated Nov 27, 2014, written as a solicitor directly to the FBN and not to any third party, cannot be the basis of any legal action against Igini, a legal practitioner;

“The said letter, Exhibit B, is not Igini’s letter but a solicitor’s demand letter written on behalf of Broron Oil and Gas Limited, and rather than file this suit against the company, FBN instituted it against Igini
“The FBN’s suit discloses no reasonable cause of action against Igini as a solicitor’s letter of demand cannot be the basis for filing a suit and that it was a letter written on a privileged occasion. Igini, as a legal practitioner, enjoys certain immunity in carrying out his client’s instruction.”

During the court hearing on November 7, 2025, Igini raised a preliminary objection, asking for an order of the court to strike out or dismiss the suit for non-disclosure of reasonable cause of action.
“Such further order or orders that the court may deem fit in the circumstance of the case,” the document stated.
The unfolding legal drama will be very interesting as Nigerians watch with baited breath to see how the regulatory agency, the CBN and the anti-graft agency, the EFCC, carry out the investigation even as the court prepares to rule on the controversial matter.

But more worrisome is the country’s perception before the outside world as there are insinuations that if a regulatory agency like the CBN cannot reign in FBN, then how can foreign investors be encouraged to put down their money in such an economy?
The belief in some quarters is that FBN looms so large such that CBN can’t control it and that is not good for the country.