Maize Growers Processors and Marketers, Association of Nigeria (MAGPMAN), Bayelsa State Chapter, has dragged Ecobank Plc. to State High Court 14 in Yenagoa, over alleged fraudulent deductions from their accounts.

The farmers alleged that the bank made unauthorized withdrawals, leading to financial losses for them.

The farmers are seeking redress for the alleged financial malfeasance.

The aggrieved farmers are seeking legal redress from Ecobank over the bank’s unsatisfactory handling of their accounts which exposed them to avoidable risks and losses.

According to the court summons document obtained by our Correspondent, the farmers account domiciled with the Bank on the Anchor Borrower Program of the Central Bank of Nigeria was run in breach of the CBN’s rules for the scheme.

The maize farmers are seeking a cumulative general and punitive damage of N68 billion.

MAGPMAN Bayelsa State chapter, in their grouse before the court, lamented that the fraud allegedly perpetrated by the commercial bank has left them with no choice than to seek redress, since the bank (Ecobank) has refuse to “listen to us in a way that we would have resolved the issue.”

Under the scheme, each of the 894 members of the group will get N182,461.02, and is expected to pay back N198,862.04 at the end of the loan tenure, but Ecobank as we speak, is even deducting N400,000, N300,000 and N205,000 as the case may be from the poor farmers.

When the case came up for mention on Thursday, the defendant’s Counsel, Theo Chike Osanakpo (SAN), sought an adjustment to enable the court commence pretrial hearing on the matter.

The court presided over by Justice Amaebi Orukari, therefore, adjourned the case until September 22, 2025.