INTERCONTINENTAL Bank Plc has dragged Alhaji Sani Dangote, chairman, Bulk Pack Services Limited, subsidiary of Dangote Group of Companies before Justice Funmilayo Atilade of the Lagos High Court over N7.5billion debt. The bank is claiming exactly the sum of N7,572,393,071.54 from Alhaji Sani Dangote, the purported sole guarantor of the various credit facilities offered to the oil firm of Bulk Pack Services Limited.
The bank in its statement of claims said the N7.5billion is the actual debt owed it by Bulk Pack Services Limited in respect of the credit facility it granted to the company. In addition to the above claims, the bank is asking for the sum of N50 million against Dangote as cost of instituting and prosecuting the action.
Intercontinental Bank which filed the claims through its counsel, Chief A.A Aribisala (SAN) claims that it offered various credit facilities to Bulk Pack Services Limited to enhance its working capital and stock trading, adding that the sums of N2 billion, N1.980 billion and N10 billion, respectively were made available to the company, and the facilities were guaranteed by Dangote.
It contended that all efforts to make Dangote liquidate the outstanding facility which stands at N7,572,393,071.54 as at June 30, 2009 proved abortive, pointing out that the interest is still accumulating. It further contended that by the refusal of the company to liquidate the debt, Dangote has failed to discharge his obligations under the personal guarantee.
But in a counter affidavit, the defendants (Dangote and Bulk Pack Services) said, “All the facilities were obtained essentially for the purchase of shares and it was a term of the various offer letters that the shares purchased should be sold by the  bank if the value of the shares pledged ever dropped below 120 per cent of the facility amount or  where the value of the shares dropped by 15 per cent”.
They stressed that if the bank had sold the shares as agreed, they (defendants) would not have only settled the facility fully but would have been left with a surplus of N2,057,159,745 in the oil company’s account, stressing that the sale would have fetched at least  N10,512,332,564.77. Consequently, the defendants are counter claiming against the bank, the sum of N10 billion as damages for negligence and or breach of contract in relation to the terms of the said offer.