IPNEWS –The testimony of the Chief Executive Officer of CT.Com Liberia Limited, Christopher H. Onanuga, in the ongoing US$7million litigation at the Commercial Court appears conflicting to a previous directive issued by Justice Joseph Nagbe, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia over the freezing of his company’s account.
On Thursday, April 12, 2023, Onanuga appeared on the witness stand to testify on CT.Com’s behalf in a case where he is claiming a whopping US$7m from the management of GT-Bank for alleged damages for reportedly freezing his business’ account.
When asked whether he maintained that his company was never referenced in any court’s order to the defendant’s bank, the CT.Com boss responded, “You are correct.” Few seconds later, Onanuga was presented with a directive from the then Justice in Chamber which speaks contrary to his testimony. The order from Justice Joseph Nagbe, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, stated that the account of CT.Com is hereby reinforced and the stay order placed on the Monrovia City Court lifted. The order was dated August 2, 2019. When quizzed whether he (Onanuga) was aware of the order, he responded by confirming “Yes.”
Interestingly while on the witness stand, Onanuga, popularly known as “Chris,” who admitted in open court of being the sole incorporator of CT.Com as well as the sole signatory to the company’s account at the GT Bank, failed to provide a clear answer to a question asking “Did you suffer any harm pursuant to Justice Nagbe’s order? He cleverly responded by insinuating that the information contained in the court’s order was misleading.
Witness Onanuga, who further claimed in his testimony that his company suffered a mammoth US$7million damage between the periods of August 2, to December 16, 2019, could not present to the court the list of vendors he was indebted to for the period.
Responding to a question from defense lawyer, “Mr. Witness, in your testimony of January 19, 2022, the 19th day sitting in this case, you testify that plaintiff operations were paralyzed, more than that, you also indicated that you have obligations to other entities. Please say to the benefit of this court the names of those entities to which you are obligated,” Witness Onanuga responded by saying “Several letters were written us while I was out of the country as well as several other companies we were obligated to but with the help of our lawyer, close friends and associates, we averted several litigations by negotiating with these vendors providing us time as to when to settle financial obligation with them.”
Moments after his assertion, Witness Onanuga told the court that his statement was misquoted after the defendant’s lawyer quizzed him on the availability of those letters that were written to him by vendors he claimed CT.Com was obligated to.
In his own words, the CT.Com Chief Executive Officer said, “My statement has been misquoted that I said several letters were written by vendors.”
In response, the defense lawyer reminded Onanuga by reiterating his previous testimony made in open court when he took the witness stand. “Mr. Witness, since you said that the question is misquotation of the records, I hereby quote what you said ‘several letters were written us while I was out of the country as well as several other companies were obligated to with the help of our lawyer, close friends and associates, we averted several litigations by negotiation with those venders providing us time as to when to settle our financial obligation with them.’
While trying to fix his records already before the court, Onanuga responded by saying “As quoted on the records, several records were written by Kailando Petroleum with foresight the company understands documentations and refused to sit back and took a proactive position by meeting the clients and vendors thereby negotiating and bringing several matters that could have gone out of hand under control.
With such a confusing response, defense lawyer immediately followed up with a question saying “Mr. Witness by that answer you do not know the number of vendors that were behind you for their money, Am I correct?” Witness Onanuga, who appeared choked with the follow up query, insisted that he was not able to provide the list of vendors.
Still on the witness stand, Witness Onanuga was questioned about the number of employees he said his company was indebted to. “Can you tell the court the number of employees? Surprisingly, the CT.Com CEO said, “As at 2019 I cannot specifically stand here to tell the specific number of staff.” When Witness Onanuga was further quizzed to give the neighborhood of the number of employees, he was emphatic by saying ‘I will not be able to play with the number.’
Earlier, when Onanuga appeared on the witness stand, he testified to other cogent documents which were presented in court as part of the pieces of evidence produced in support of the witness’ claims. Those documents were confirmed and marked by the court to form part of the case’s record, but the business tycoon failed to provide copies of the letters vendors allegedly wrote him. According to court records available to us, the witness also could not give the list of his staff prior to the time his account was frozen by the bank.
In March 2020, lawyers representing the CT.Com Liberia Limited filed a lawsuit against the Management of Guaranty Trust Bank (GT-Bank) Liberia claiming US$7million in damages for freezing their account in 2019.
According to legal documents, the account of the company was frozen based on a court order issued by the Monrovia City Court to which the bank obliged.
However, the CT.Com CEO is claiming that the bank’s alleged improper action in freezing CT.Com’s account, which he said was as a result of misidentification, crippled his company and caused them to be financially obligated to tons of vendors though those vendors could not be named.
Meanwhile, the case has been suspended pending notice of assignment.
