Company Gives GTCO 7 Days To Retract Libelous Statement Or Pay N1 Billion

Guarantee Trust Company (GTCO) is currently enmeshed in a N1billion defamation suit over an alleged libelous publication against Corporate Forwarders Limited. 

The solicitors to Corporate Forwarder in a letter seen by AllNews Nigeria and addressed to GTCO are demanding a retraction, an apology, and compensation for the injurious libelous 'falsehood' against its client. 

According to the letter, GTCO had erroneously flagged Corporate Forwarders Limited as credit risk based on a report from the Credit Risk Management System (CSRM)  of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). 

GTCO accused Corporate Forwarders of being 1952 days late in repaying an overdraft of N13, 021,000 granted to the company in 2015. 

However, Corporate Forwarders Ltd, a frontline logistics services provider of over 3 decades has never applied or received any financial support from GTCO. 

The letter stated that the alleged error on the part of GTCO made Corporate Forwarders lose out on securing a loan from another commercial bank, thereby resulting in financial losses for the company. 

However, the bank which received the demand letter on Nov. 4 has until Nov. 11 (seven days) to pull down the offensive and defamatory publication from the Credit Risk Management's System platform, publish an apology for the misinformation on a national daily and pay the sum of N1 billion as compensation or face legal proceedings.

Recall that in July, Guarantee Trust Bank Plc (GTB) completed its re-organisation to a Holding Company Structure and adopted the name, Guarantee Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO).

However, as of the time of filing this report, the management of GTCO is yet to respond to the charges.