GTBank Vs fake news

“GTBank as we heard may likely undergo certain challenges because of the case it has just lost to Innoson Motors, N14 billion or so.
If your parents are using GTB or someone close, to be on the safe side, let them go and withdraw their monies IMMEDIATELY”.
The above message first circulated in the social media some weeks ago  with claims that the Supreme Court has awarded damages to the tune of N14 billion against GTBank (Guaranty Trust Bank) in a suit filed by Innoson Motors.
The liars argued that the “landmark” award would force the collapse of GTBank, and therefore called on depositors to withdraw their money before the bank collapses.  When the story re-appeared last week the Supreme Court angle had been carefully edited out. It turned out that the story is one of the fake news now reigning supreme in the social media.  
The problem is that the same old lies are being repeated in the social media which have more followership than the conventional media.  Ironically, when a lie is told repeatedly, it begins to sound like the truth.
Unfortunately, sponsors of the malicious lie against one of Nigeria’s strongest banks remain anonymous.  All that could be deciphered from the mountain of lies is that the fake news emanates from the simmering dispute between Innocent Chukwuma, managing director of Innoson Motors and GTBank, over a loan transaction that went awry. 
The dispute has snowballed into criminal charges against Chukwuma and five other defendants.  The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is prosecuting the six including Innoson Motors for allegedly forging shipping documents used as collaterals for a loan of N2.4 billion with GTBank and using the forged documents to clear the bank’s goods worth N2.4 billion.
The case is being tried by a Lagos State High Court.  With the case in court, only the trial judge has the right to comment on the matter.  At the end of the trial, the court would determine whether Innocent Chukwuma and his cohorts actually forged documents to steal goods belonging to GTBank.
However, before the truth emerges, something disastrous could happen to GTBank if the lies making the rounds in the social media remain unchallenged.
Many believe that the fake news cannot cause a run in GTBank because those who have significant deposits in the bank have more reliable sources of information on their investment than the social media.
However, developments in the United States of America during the 2016 presidential election campaigns suggest that a very sophisticated audience could be swayed by lies on the social media.  Today, the world is teetering on the brink of a dangerous trade war because sources believed to be close to the Russian government fed American voters with fat lies about Hillary Clinton, one of the two presidential contenders and deceived voters into electing a sanctimonious radical as president of the world’s most powerful nation.
If a sophisticated American audience could be swayed by lies in the social media, worse things could happen in Nigeria with an alarmingly low level of financial literacy in the country.
Those who are calling on depositors to withdraw their monies with GTBank because the bank would collapse if it pays N14 billion to Innoson Motors are playing on the alarmingly low level of financial literacy in the country.
The truth is that even if there was an iota of truth in the claim that the Supreme Court ordered GTBank to pay Innosson Motors the sum of N14 billion as damages, the bank could pay the money with a flip of the finger without batting an eye lid.
A bank that raked in N200.2 billion as profit before tax from gross earnings of N419.2 billion in the 2017 financial year cannot be rattled by payment of a paltry N14 billion which in the first place is a stupid lie cooked up by ill-informed criminals.
GTBank sits on an astounding asset base of N3.845 trillion and a deposit base of N2.062 trillion. 
Last year, GTBank paid an unrivalled sum of N2.70 per share as dividend on well over 30 billion shares to its highly impressed shareholders.  A bank with such pedigree cannot be rattled by a judgment sum of N14 billion cooked up by idle-minded criminals.
However, the other side of the story is that GTBank is big enough to bring down the Nigerian banking system if the fake news in the social media is allowed to wear the toga of truth.  Such a development could cause the intended run on the bank and trigger a systemic distress in the nation’s banking system.
That is why the EFCC and other law enforcement agencies should trace the sources of the lies against GTBank, arrest and prosecute them and their sponsors.  Nigeria harbors an incredible array of high profile criminals in the private sector because of the alarmingly high level of impunity in government circles. The situation must change.
The managing director of Nissan Motors of Japan has been in detention for more than two weeks now over alleged corporate crime.  He would soon be tried and jailed if found culpable.  The pocket-size executives in Nigeria parading as untouchable high profile criminals might learn lessons from Nissan if Nigerian laws are allowed to take their course.